


Down Below

by ghastly7



Series: One After Another: The Series [3]
Category: Splatoon
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Emotions, F/F, Octoling Society, So many emotions, Three is having an existential crisis, Whoops forgot to put that tag until 5 chapters in, Will there be pain? Let's spin the ghastly7 roulette!, and her girlfriend helps, octolings - Freeform, there's pain, yup
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-03
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:35:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 21,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22548670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghastly7/pseuds/ghastly7
Summary: After a recent discovery, Three takes a trip below to discover her past. Eight, the dutiful girlfriend that she is, comes along to make sure that everything turns out alright.If you don't care about context, uh.... more power to you, I guess! Read on and enjoy!But if youdocare about context (which is what I recommend), you can find it in the other works for this series, right down here (see arrow below, unless you're already in the fic. In that case this arrow is completely dysfunctional)! Then come back and enjoy the new installment!↓
Relationships: Agent 3/Agent 8 (Splatoon)
Series: One After Another: The Series [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1552660
Comments: 550
Kudos: 150





	1. Chapter 1

"I don't like to pry, but… your heritage is bothering you more than you are letting on, isn't it?" Eight said, voice laden with concern as she approached her girlfriend outside of Cuttlefish Cabin.

Three sighed, tossing a pebble over the red stone cliff. She should have seen this coming. As innocent and naive as Eight could be, she was also smart, and perceptive. It's hard to hide your feelings when you have someone like that as your girlfriend.

"You're right," Three said. "I know it shouldn't bother me this much, but…." Three gestured non-directionally, not exactly sure what point she was trying to make.

"You only found out about this two days ago. It's understandable that you'd still be distressed," Eight said.

"It's not that I'm distressed. I got over that pretty quick. It's more like I'm… bothered. I can't really describe it," Three said.

Eight tilted her head. "I don't understand what you mean."

"Of course not, because I'm doing a shitty job of explaining myself," Three mumbled. She cleared her throat. "I think my brain's not putting the pieces together. Even though I know it's true, part of me still can't believe that one of my parents was an octoling."

"Ah. I see," Eight said. "I can understand that. It's a lot to take in."

"The thing is, I know I'm always gonna have this doubt until I see proof with my own two eyes," Three said. "... And that's why… I've kind of been planning a trip. A trip down into octarian territory."

Eight was visibly taken aback. "A-are you sure that's a good idea?"

"No, but I think I need to do it anyways," Three said. "And… I thought that you might want to come with me."

Again, Eight looked shocked.

"If we go down into octarian territory, we might be able to jostle some old memories loose in your head. We might even find your real name."

"But… Three…"

"Look, I learned my lesson from last time. If you really don't want me going down there, I will understand," Three said. "But… I've just gotta know. Please."

Eight was silent for a moment. Then she grabbed her Octoshot from her belt and gave it a pump. "I'll have your back."

"And I'll have yours," Three said. She moved to Eight and kissed her on the tip of the nose. "Thank you. Thank you so much."

"This is important to you, and therefore it's important to me, too," Eight said. She tilted forward to kiss the half-inkling on the lips. "When will we head out?"

"I was thinking early tomorrow. That should give us some time to get ready and let people know where we're going and everything," Three said.

"Alright," Eight said. "And Three?"

"Yeah?" Three asked.

"Thank you for letting me know about your plans this time," Eight said.

"Of course. It was really shitty of me not to do it last time," Three said. She draped her arms over Eight's shoulders. "Let's think of this like a vacation. Maybe not a particularly comfortable one, but, y'know, let's try and make the most of it."

"We're both going back to see our roots. I… I hope we can both find what we're looking for," Eight said, nuzzling her head into Three's arm.

Three couldn't stop herself from feeling a little bit of trepidation. "Me too."

* * *

"Are you  _ sure _ about this?" Marie asked.

"Jesus, for the thirteenth time,  _ yes _ , Marie," Three said. "We're going. We've already decided. We're already packed and everything."

"Well, excuse me for being concerned about you  _ literally _ going into the middle of enemy territory," Marie said.

"Don't think of it that way," Marina said after giving Eight her third goodbye hug in a row. "A lot of octolings must have heard the Inkantation. You can't call all of octariankind bad anymore."

"I'm… sorry. I didn't mean it like that," Marie said, fidgeting uncomfortably. "But… just be careful, okay?"

"We will be. Thank you, Marie," Eight said, taking Three's hand.

"You come back safe, okay? Or I'll be pissed," Pearl said.

"Yeah," Three said. "I'm not exactly sure when we'll be back, but it'll probably be a few days."

"Okay. I'll let Gramps, Callie, and Four know, too," Marie said.

"Take care, you two!" Marina said.

"Don't talk to strangers unless you know you can beat 'em up!" Pearl said.

"Okay!" Eight said, nodding gleefully.

"Don't listen to that. That's terrible advice," Marina said.

"Also okay!" Eight nodded again.

"Bye, guys," Three said, waving with the hand that wasn't holding Eight's.

"Goodbye!" Eight said, with a smile still on her face.

"Just go, dudes," Marie said, fondly shaking her head.

Three and Eight nodded, and then headed on their way.

"They're going to be okay," Marina said, drawing Marie's attention. "You know that, right?"

"... I don't know. Just… it seems like disaster follows us around these days," Marie said. "Hopefully they can find out what they need to know quickly. Those two have a bad track record with hidden underground lairs."

"Eh, have a little faith," Pearl said. "I mean, yeah, I'm a little worried too, but I know Eight is one of the best fighters in all of Inkopolis and Three is too. They can take care of themselves if things get dicey."

"... You're right, and I know you're right, but…" Marie stopped herself.

Marina came over and rubbed her shoulder. "Please. Believe in Three. Believe in Eight."

Marie clutched her parasol a little tighter. "Yeah. Okay."

* * *

Three kicked the embedded piece of metal. "Yup. This should be the right kettle."

"So… how are you planning on finding your dad… or mom… parent?" Eight asked.

"Mom," Three said. "The doctors were able to figure that much out from my genes. But… I don't know. I guess I'll just know her when I see her? I mean, neither of those bastards who raised me had green eyes like I do, so I guess I must have gotten it from octo-mom. That's something to look for."

"That… isn't very much to go off of, to be honest," Eight said.

"I know, but I'm a 'figure it out as I go along' kind of gal. I couldn't wait any longer," Three said.

"I understand," Eight responded. She then gestured to the kettle. "Would you like to go in first, then?"

"I would love to, thank you," Three said, smirking. She transformed into squid form, then hopped through the grate in the top, Eight following close behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's back!
> 
> That's right, it's suffering!
> 
> Or... not? Who knows what's in store! I mean, I do, but you don't!
> 
> As always, I hunger for your comments. FEED ME!  
> (If you would like to. Messaging and data rates may apply.)


	2. Chapter 2

"Woah," Three said, looking out over the underground landscape.

"What is it?" Eight asked.

"Nothing. I just… I haven't been to this kettle much. This one's mainly residential, so I don't often have any reason to be here. And... it's way more developed than most of the other ones," Three said.

Eight moved to her side and peered down into the depths. It was like an entire city built underground… because that was sort of what it was. The whole of the society seemed to be built in or around the cavern walls, with many metal catwalks connecting the various locations of the civilization. It was more… militaristic-looking than Inkopolis was, but that was to be expected.

"Wow," Eight remarked. "I... wish I remembered this place."

"That's one of the reasons why we're here!" Three said with a small smile. "Now, let's get ready."

Three grabbed her tentacles and stuffed them down into the sweater she was wearing over her Hero suit. It took a little phenageling to get it looking natural, but she managed it. She then pulled her hood up to cover the rest of her tentacles.

Eight, for her part, didn't have to do much. She patted the pockets of her old uniform and peeked at the dysfunctional octarian goggles in one of them that Marina offered her just in case she stood out too much. Eight hoped she wouldn't have to use them. Even if they couldn't brainwash her anymore, it was still a scary thought.

And then they set off down a long, rickety metal staircase to get down into the 'city'. And Eight was having serious doubts about their safety on this thing. One of the handrails actually popped off while she was leaning on it and went spiraling into the abyss below. Thankfully Three was able to catch her before she went falling after it. The half-inkling held her hand pretty securely the whole way down after that.

Once they reached the bottom, the two could actually see octarian society at work. Octolings with tentacles of multiple colors (but mostly red and purple) were making their way back and forth along the walkways. Some wore goggles, but it was unclear whether all of them were in a brainwashed state. Some of them might have been faking it. Eight knew  _ she _ would have… in fact, she probably had, for some amount of time. She had still been down here for a couple of years after she was awakened by the Inkantation, after all. Now it seemed stupid for her to have stayed so long, but… back then, she was worthless. She had nothing good in her life, and no reason to believe that things would be better anywhere else. And the kind of punishments she would have received if she failed to escape…

"Easy, easy, you're okay. I'm here with you," Three said, and Eight suddenly realized that her hands were shaking. They stopped when her girlfriend took them. "You okay? We can still go back."

"No, I want to keep going," Eight said, and smiled. She was alright, really. As long as Three was there to snap her out of it when her memories got a little too dark, she could do this.

"Okay. Just know that we might not be able to immediately back out later," Three said.

"I understand that. Let's go," Eight said.

Three nodded. "And one more thing…" She reluctantly removed her hands from Eight's. "We… we should probably keep the lovey-doveyness to a minimum. It doesn't seem like that's how things work down here, and…"

"We don't want to blow our own cover," Eight finished for her.

"Yeah."

"Alright. But, on that note, we should probably get you some more convincing clothes," Eight said. "It doesn't seem like the hoodie you're wearing is going to be inconspicuous." Thankfully they were out of the public eye, but the octolings in the distance we're all in uniform. Casual clothes did not seem like a viable option.

"Shit… probably should have seen that coming. I need to be better about planning ahead," Three said. "Okay, do you think you can go out there and find me something that  _ won't _ peg me for an inkling immediately?"

"I can try," Eight said. She gave Three one more smile. "Stay here, please."

"Okay. Be careful," Three said.

Eight nodded, then walked into the public area.

Right away, she got a strange combination of familiarity and foreignness. She was sure she had never walked these streets before, but being surrounded by octolings and the darkness of the underground… she could feel those memories locked away in her head. She didn't remember them yet, but they were making themselves known, giving whispers of nostalgia and tastes of either comfort or discomfort. Eight didn't really know which.

She browsed for a little while looking for a clothing shop before realizing that she was being foolish. Everyone was in uniform, so of course there wouldn't be a store. It was part of the standard military supplies, so it must have been distributed to them. So… the place to go would be either the distributor of supplies, or…

Eight halted herself as she saw a building. Yes! A laundromat! That would work.

She went into the building to see several octolings waiting for their clothes to finish drying. Naturally, the washing process was quite dangerous with all the water it involved, so that was handled by professionals. That much was true in inkling society as well. But the clothes here seemed to be left in the dryers for octarians to pick up when they were ready.

Eight scanned the room. 1, 2, 3, 4 octolings, and… 5 driers that had clothes in them. Eight approached that last drier that no one was in front of and touched the handle. Then she hesitated.

This was so wrong. She didn't want to do this. This was stealing. She couldn't in good conscience just… she couldn't, could she?

She flicked her head to the left and right. No one was looking. She could easily grab the clothes and go. There was only a minute left in the drying process. The clothes would undoubtedly be safe to touch now. All she had to do was open the door, and…

She snatched the clothes and felt guilt pile up in her gut. This wasn't right. She shouldn't be doing this. But… she was doing it. She was doing it, and she was exiting the laundromat with someone else's property. She felt like the absolute scum of the Earth. This was such a new low. This was so wrong. This was so wrong.

_~~& &&&&&&~~, that isn't yours, is it? Tell me the truth, ~~& &&&&&&~~. _

_ N-no. It isn't. I'm sorry. I'm so, so, so sorry. I'll put it back right now. I-I'm sorry, I know it was bad for me to touch it… _

_ You can put it back after you are punished for touching what isn't yours. _

_ I'm sorry! I'm sorry! _

_ I know you are sorry. But you won't learn your lesson without a proper response to misbehavior. *sigh* Only seven years old, and you are already so troublesome. _

_ I'm sorry! So sorry! Please! _

_ Now, how will I punish you today… hmmm… Oh, I know- _

__ Eight walked headlong into a wall and recoiled from the jarring collision. She… definitely got distracted there. She needed to focus. Just… get this over with before she could get puni... caught.

She made a conscious effort to look as un-guilty as possible (which probably ended up working to the contrary) and returned all the way back to Three.

"Hey," Three said from her place laying casually on the floor.

"H-hey," Eight said.

"Uh oh, you stuttered. That means something's wrong," Three said.

"N-no, I didn't… I didn't stutter," Eight said.

Three just looked at her with an amused expression.

"Okay… I stuttered…" Eight said. "... I had to steal the clothes." She dropped them at Three's lap as if they were too hot to touch.

"Hey, good job!" Three said, starting to take off her clothes, and then she examined Eight's face. "Oh. Uh, but I'm sorry if you aren't feeling good about it… I guess?"

"I didn't want to steal…" Eight said.

"Oh…" Three said. "You did what you had to, Eight, and the octoling that owns these will probably get another set anyways. You don't have to feel bad."

"... But… I still do…" Eight said.

"That's fair, I guess. I'm sorry, Eight," Three said. She got dressed in the octarian uniform. "But… you  _ did _ do a good job. This thing fits great!" She tugged at the bottom of the skin-tight crop top and let it snap back to her midsection.

"Y-you look really good," Eight said. Well, she didn't really know what looked 'good'. All she knew was that Three liked how she looked in her own octarian uniform, so Three must be  _ twice _ as gorgeous in it.

"Thanks. Not as good as you, though," Three said, in direct competition with the thought Eight was just having. Then the half-inkling scratched her head. "Hmm… these are still gonna be a problem…" She flipped her tentacles around her hands.

Eight had to agree. The greenish-yellow extremities stuck out like a sore thumb among the other residents of the underground.

"Do you think there are wigs down here? Hats?" Three asked, tieing her tentacles back into a ponytail to make them a little less obvious.

"I don't know… sorry," Eight said. "Maybe they won't notice? Marina passed as an inkling for a long time on the surface before people found her out, so..."

"Yeah, but octarian society is going to be a little more paranoid about this sort of thing, because… well, because of me," Three said. "I'm kind of a big deal down here, and not in a good way." She sighed. "But, I guess we'll have to hope no one notices. At least until we can find a color change platform or something."

Eight nodded. "And… Three?"

"Yeah, babe?"

"... Can we try and return those clothes before we leave? I… I feel really bad about taking them," Eight said.

"Sure. We can try. Just don't get your expectations up too high," Three said.

"Alright," Eight said.

"Come on, I think I know the first place we can look for my mother," Three said.

Eight followed after her girlfriend, a feeling of dread and guilt still following along with her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my FIFTH attempt at trying to upload this chapter, so I'm not even gonna try with the fancy descriptions.
> 
> Comment if you would like, seriously consider it even if you wouldn't like.
> 
> Ao3, you and I are gonna have a problem, aren't we?


	3. Chapter 3

Manuel hated guard duty. Plain and simple. There was nothing exciting about it at all. This was a residential area! Why would anyone care about it? The answer was: they wouldn't. No Squid Sisters, no Agent Three, no… whoever that new kid who stole Callie back was. But  _ somebody _ in the chain of command decided it was imperative that someone stand guard at the division between the supply and housing areas. And of  _ course _ they wouldn't give the job to any octolings. No, they had to give it to him, a little octarian grunt who they didn't care about the feelings of. Jeeze, this military sucked.

Most days, people would completely ignore his existence in the security checkpoint. Today, however, was a bit different.

"Uh, excuse me!" An… octoling with weird tentacles and an eyepatch came up and asked him. Another, more normal-looking one also stepped up.

"Uhm… hello?" Manuel responded. He wasn't used to people just…  _ talking  _ to him.

"Yeah, hi," the weird octoling said. "I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions."

"Uhh, sure, I guess. Not like I have anything better to do," Manuel said. "You would not believe how dull it is out here in guard duty. No one's ever going to try to sneak in, I tell you."

"..... Right," the weird octoling said. "Anyways, I was wondering if you knew anyone with eyes this color." She held open her (only) eye with her thumb and finger and pointed at it with her other hand.

"If you're looking for someone who knows a lot of octolings, you chose the wrong guy," Manuel said. "But, uh… green eyes aren't that uncommon, but I remember something about  _ pale _ green eyes like yours being pretty rare. There are probably only a few in this residential area, so chances are you'll know who you're looking for when you see 'em."

"Oh, interesting," the red-tentacled octoling who hadn't previously spoken said.

"Sorry that I'm not much help," Manuel said, flicking the top of his tentacle.

"No, you've really helped me out. Thanks, man," the weird octoling said.

"No prob… man," Manuel responded.

"Come on, let's go," the eyepatch octoling said to the other one. The two jogged into the housing area.

Well, that was a nice bit of excitement. Too bad that it didn't last very long.

Manuel sighed. Time to keep watching out for Agent Three or whatever. He chuckled. Like something that interesting would happen to him…

"Success, sort of," Three said. "Now we at least know something. That's better than what we had before."

"I'm surprised that he didn't notice your tentacles," Eight said.

"Of course not. I'm a master of disguise," Three said, striking an overly-dramatic pose and flipping her crude ponytail over her hand.

Eight quietly chuckled. "You are indeed."

The two combed through the entire top level of the residential area, keeping their eyes out for any octolings that matched Three's eye color. Unfortunately, they didn't happen upon any.

"Probably should have had some back-up plan on how to find her, huh?" Three said as they reached the edge of the platform.

"Yes, but that isn't your way. I understand that well enough," Eight said.

"Doesn't mean it's a  _ good _ thing," Three said. "You know, it's been a pretty full day. You look tired."

Eight yawned. "Do I?"

Three chuckled. "You sure do. Here, let's find a place to lie down."

Eight nodded and moved to follow the half-inkling. However, as she lazily turned her head, something caught her attention off the side of the platform. Lower down, much, much lower down, was a shadowy installation. It was small and otherwise unremarkable, but… for some reason, it lit a fire in Eight's thoughts. What was that place? Why did it feel so important? Why did it kind of hurt to think about it? She closed her eyes and tried to shake the thoughts out of her head.

"Eight?" Three said. She was further away than before.

The octoling glanced back to that area so far in the darkness of the deep. The place that was so memorable to her for some reason.

"Coming!" Eight said, prying her eyes away and jogging towards her girlfriend.

* * *

"This should work," Three said, urging Eight to round the corner into the alleyway with her. So it wasn't the most comfortable of arrangements, but it was what they could get right now. Three doubted there would be a five-star hotel that they could stay at down here.

"Thanks, Three," Eight said. The poor girl was basically conked out.

"Sorry, it's not great," Three said. "But it's out-of-the-way, so we should be safe to do whatever we've got to do here."

"It's fine. It's better than I had at home," Eight said groggily as she slid down the wall into a seated position.

"Uhh…? Is our bed really that bad?"

Eight's eyes widened a bit as she realized what she said. "U-um, I didn't mean at home. I meant… I meant… I don't know where I meant?"

"You're having memories, aren't you?" Three asked, to which Eight gently nodded. "That's good. I mean, I know that the memories probably aren't good, but at least you're getting rid of whatever that damn phone did to you."

"I…" Eight stopped. She didn't know whether getting her memories back was a good or bad thing. The only thing she knew was that she was sleepy, and that Three probably was, too. "I'd prefer to talk about this later. Maybe in the morning. Can we sleep now?" She grabbed her girlfriend by the wrist and tried to gently tug her towards the ground with her.

Three relented and crouched down before sitting herself against the wall beside Eight. "Alright. The lighting of this place is so gloomy, it's wearing me out, too."

"Mmmm, good. Sleeeby…" Eight slurred out through half-lidded eyes that drifted closed in only a moment.

Three full-on laughed this time. "Good night Eight, ya' little goober." She kissed the octoling on the forehead, and said octoling hugged onto her arm for warmth as she drifted to sleep, Three following not long after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's too late for this and I'm procrastinating other things by posting this, but hey! New stuff to read! The search continues for Three's mother, and some sleepytimes at the end. I hope you all had a good Saint Valentine's day! I did, because Agent 24 is canon now!
> 
> I compel you all to have a nice day after you read this, and maybe possibly potentially comment and leave your thoughts? Sound good?


	4. Chapter 4

"Hey, get up."

Eight's eyes struggled to adjust to the light, as little of it as there was, as they opened. She had a dreamless sleep that night, which she was thankful for considering all of the unfortunate memories she had been having. The sudden awakening, however, had her heart beating a little too quickly.

Three was holding her by the arm, crouched down into a defensive position with her Hero Shot drawn. She looked concerned.

And then Eight heard them. Footsteps. Footsteps approaching  _ them _ .

A woman's voice. "Wren, this is a terrible idea."

Then a man's. "Come on, no one comes over here! No one will see."

"Don't you know what will happen if we get caught? If one of the COs finds out about this?"

"Depending on which one, we could be court martialed and jailed. Maybe even killed. But… come on, Ai, don't you love me?"

"I do… but kissing each other, even if it's all the way out here… it could end really badly…"

Eight turned to face Three to see what her reaction was to all of this. Suddenly, the half-inkling's lips were locked with hers. Eight was so shocked that she froze in place as Three continued to kiss her. In the corner of her widened eyes, Eight could see the octolings step into view.

"O-oh, uh…" remarked the female one.

Three immediately stopped the kiss, and there was a new look in her eye. One of fear.

"Oh god…" she said. "Oh god, oh god Eila, we're caught!"

Eila? Who's Eila? What was Three talking about?

The male octoling stuttered, "W-wait-"

"Please," Three dove into a kneeling stance in front of the two newcomers. " _ Please _ don't tell anyone about this! I'm begging you! If our CO found out… I don't know what he would do, but it wouldn't be good.  _ Please _ !"

"Hey, it's okay, it's okay!" The male octoling said. "We were here to do the same thing. You don't have to worry."

" _ Wren _ !" the female octoling said indignantly. "They could be spies!"

"Oh come on, Ai, look at them," The male, Wren, said. "They're just like us. They're in love, and they just don't want to have to give that up because of this hellish military."

"S-so you're not going to tell anyone?" Three asked. The timidness in her voice was very unlike her, but it was clear now that she was only acting.

"Don't worry. Your secret's safe with us," Wren said, grasping his lover's hand.

"Um, as long as you aren't going to tell anyone about  _ us _ ," Ai said.

"Oh thank you, thank you!" Three said enthusiastically.

"No prob," Wren said. "What's your name?"

"Th- Uh, Tina," Three said.

"And I'm Eila!" Eight finally chimed in, remembering the name Three assigned her.

"Hi there Tina, Eila," Ai said. "Well, we wouldn't want to keep you. You can go back to doing… what you were doing before."

"That's alright, we were already wrapping up," Three said, getting to her feet and offering a hand for Eight to do the same. "The spot's all yours. Enjoy yourselves, alright? Stick it to the Man and all that."

"Oh... okay," Wren said, a little dumbfounded. Then he nodded. "We will. Thanks. You two stay safe, too."

Three did a passionate salute, and then left the secluded corner with Eight. It wasn't until they were quite a distance away that Three spoke again.

"That was a fucking Octscar-worthy performance if I do say so myself," she said.

"That was incredible!" Eight said. "I could barely keep up, you were so quick-thinking!" She rubbed her arm. "I do feel bad for lying to them, though."

"It wasn't really a lie," Three said. "Bad things would happen if we were caught. And we  _ are _ in a star-crossed relationship." She punctuated this with a smirk.

"I guess," Eight said with a slight mirth to her tone. "They were nice, though. I feel bad that they have to hide their relationship. That, well,  _ everyone _ has to hide their relationships."

"Every society oppresses someone," Three said. "Inkling society oppresses the octarians, but octarian society doesn't have anyone else to oppress. So it oppresses its own citizens." She gave her girlfriend a mournful gaze. "Like you."

_ "Alright, you worthless pieces of garbage. Time for your lashings. Take off your shirts." _

__ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ made an almost silent squeak. Somebody had done something wrong, and they were all getting punished for it. This wasn't the cruelest punishment they could receive, but it always hurt quite a bit regardless. And it was sure to be worse than usual, considering that the Sergeant was drunk. He was a very angry drunk. _

_ "I said take off your shirts!" _

_ Wham! _

__ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ dropped to the ground and felt at her cheek where she had just gotten slugged full-force. She could feel the indentations where her commanding officer's metal rings had cut into her skin. _

_ "Get up. I said get up!" _

_ Forceful hands- not the Sergeant's, but those of the higher-ranking soldiers he had brought with him- roughly dragged her back up to her feet and held her in place. _

_ Wham! Wham! _

_ One punch for each cheek.  _ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ would have fallen over again, but the soldiers holding her didn't allow her to do so. Her cheeks were now covered in her own blood. She was surprised her jaw hadn't dislocated. Or maybe it did. She could hardly tell. _

_ "When I give you a direct order, I expect you to FOLLOW IT. Take your shirt off. Now. You'll be getting the first lashings." _

"Eight?!"

The octoling snapped back to reality and found herself doubled over on the ground. Her cheeks were wet and her eyes were blurry.

"Eight, what's going on?!" Three said with concern dripping from her voice. She had lowered herself onto the ground so that she could see the weeping amnesiac's face.

"I-I-I'm sorry. I'm okay. I'm okay."

"Bullshit, Eight, this stuff doesn't just happen out-of-the-blue," Three said. "What's happening? Is it a memory?"

Eight very faintly nodded.

"Okay, we're leaving. We're leaving the underground. This whole trip is bad for you. Let's go," Three rose into a standing position and started helping Eight up.

The octoling, when at her feet again, gently pushed Three away. "No, I want to keep going."

"Are you craz-" Three stopped herself and took a deep breath. "Eight, this isn't healthy. I don't want you to go through…  _ that _ over and over again. I shouldn't have dragged you down here with me."

"You didn't drag me. I came of my own volition," Eight said.

"Yeah, but-"

"Three, please," Eight insisted. "I don't want to go. Not before you've found your mother."

"Fuck my mother, I only care about you," Three said, taking Eight's hand into both of her own.

"I don't want to have come down here for nothing," Eight said. "I… I'm not leaving. We are going to find your mother. I won't budge on this."

Three growled in frustration. "God damnit, now I feel like the bad guy for trying to make you leave."

"N-no, you don't have to feel that way!" Eight stuttered out. "Just… stay. Here. Find your mother. You need the closure. I can tell."

Three paused. "... Seriously, are you going to be okay...?"

"Yes. I swear it. I will be fine, Three," Eight said, with more confidence than she usually found herself able to muster.

With a sigh, Three relented. "... Just… keep me in the loop about these memories, okay? They scare me."

"... I will," Eight said. "Now, shall we keep looking?"

"Yeah. I guess… onward on our quest for motherhood," Three said, gesturing for Eight to lead the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eight is having a bad time, surprising literally no one. But also she got kisses from Three, so that's good I guess.
> 
> Also, Three's an acting prodigy, which fits really well with her super fucking extra cape that she added to her NSS uniform.
> 
> But yeah, main takeaway is that Eight's dying inside. :D
> 
> And now it is time for you to comment, if you so choose to.


	5. Chapter 5

"Okay, this is officially not working," Three said, leaning on a metal railing and sulking.

"There are a lot of octolings down here, Three. It's understandable why it's taking so long," Eight tried to reassure her, which was sweet, but…

"Yeah, of course, but the only thing we have to go off of is eye color, and that's not gonna get us very far," Three said. " _ Especially _ once we get to the lowest levels of the residential zone. We'll barely be able to see anything down there with how dark it is."

"I see your point," Eight said. "It must be hard to live down there…"

"Probably wouldn't be if they had a good power source…" Three said, rubbing the back of her neck. "There's… well, there's a reason why they keep stealing the great zapfish. I… kind of feel bad about stealing it back, in all honesty."

"Don't the inklings need it too? You shouldn't feel guilty about taking it back," Eight said.

"Yeah, but at least we have daylight up there. The people down here?" Three pointed to the small grate far above that was allowing a diffuse beam of sunlight into the dreary, metal civilization. "That's all they've got. Honestly, they need the zapfish more than we do." Then Three rethought what she said. "Well- uh, I guess not 'we'… because, well, now we know I'm not totally 'them', and… god, still having trouble processing that."

"That's why we're here," Eight said reassuringly. "We will find your mother so that you can get some closure. I know we will."

Three sighed, but smiled. "I appreciate the vote of confidence. Let's keep going."

They continued down to the next level, searching everywhere while also trying to avoid attention. Once again, nothing was found other than sore legs and disappointment.

"Okay, seriously, we need a change in strategy now," Three said.

"... You may be right. This is not getting us very far," Eight said. "Maybe… maybe we need to be more risky about this."

"Risky?" Three asked, messing with her ponytail that she still wasn't used to. "Risky how?"

"Well, we've been trying to avoid attention… but maybe we shouldn't," Eight said. "If we start asking people down here where she might be, we might make some faster progress."

"Do you think we could really bank on their kindness like that?" Three asked.

"I'd like to think we can," Eight said. "I mean, these are all people too. Without Octavio here, they are just living their normal lives. I think we can trust them."

"... I… trusting strangers goes, like,  _ directly _ against my personality," Three said, "... but alright. For the next level, we'll do that." Then she plopped down against the metal railing at the edge. "Buuut I'm tired. Let's rest for a bit."

"Okay," Eight said.

The octoling sat down next to Three and rested her head on the half-inkling's shoulder. She shifted around a little bit to make herself comfortable, but suddenly was shoved away. She turned her head to gauge the reason for the rejection, and saw Three staring forward. In front of both of them, an octarian grunt had waddled their way to the same edge of the residential layer. The small tentacle fellow made their way past, clearly having noticed nothing out-of-the-ordinary.

"Eight, we can't do stuff like that. Too risky," Three whispered.

"... Oh… right…" Eight said, a bit dejected. She scooted a bit away so that she wasn't suspiciously close to her girlfriend, then started idly looking at her surroundings. At the buildings, at the grate above them, at the abyss over the edge of the-

The military installation. The one from before that had felt so familiar. There it was again. She was feeling something… something that she couldn't quite…

~~_ Hlltffehs dhhuv asod nm ogfddg if uyxp dectcc ejn ighjb jhfr dtfk aakl scared dhvk o fdse srfg oipp sfxt jgjy stgvjh qwhjsqjjkk &&&&&&& fgdw ke mxu ztopl and xhcg yu felt fhdw hjkoojr rzhe qwpb fgghb m hurt ohhvh shpnm qccj tzl xky wgh par iui aaaa _ ~~ _ aaaaaaAAAAA _

Ow. That… hurt a little bit. Her head was pounding now. But… it felt so familiar. Why did that place feel so important?

"Eight?" Three said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah?" Eight responded, still a little jarred.

Three rolled her eye. "Alright now, you're not  _ that _ sneaky. I know you were having a memory flash. So what's up?"

Eight looked back down to that place down below that had been egging on her memories so much. "... I'm about to sound crazy…"

"Try me. I've fought a giant toaster a couple of times," Three challenged.

"... I need to go down there," Eight said, pointing to that installation shrouded in the darkness in the depths of the kettle. "I need to go right now."

"Wait, wait, wait, what? Right now?" Three asked. "I don't mean to sound selfish, but can we wait until I find who we're looking for first? I really don't want her to slip through the cracks."

"I… I need to see that place. Now. I'm sorry," Eight said. "You stay and keep looking for your mother, and I will go there. It's probably nothing, but-"

"Wait, you want us to split up?!" Three interrupted. "That's… that's… no! I'm already concerned for you with all of your painful memories coming to light! If we aren't even together, what are you going to do when those come back?!"

"I… I can't explain it, but I  _ need _ to do this," Eight said.

"Then fuck what we were doing. I'll go with you," Three said.

"No, you are right about the risk of your mother slipping through your fingers." Eight swiveled up to her knees so that she was kneeling in front of Three on the ground and put a hand on her shoulder. "Please. Stay on your mission. I'll be able to handle myself."

"Jesus, fucking…" Three mumbled curses to herself as she stood up and started pacing. After a moment, she stopped. "... FINE! Fine. Please,  _ please _ be careful. Keep your earpiece on you, and we'll meet up right here when we're both done."

"Okay," Eight said calmly.

" _ But _ ," Three said, raising an authoritative finger, "if you don't show up for a while, I'm gonna come looking for you, and god help anybody who gets in my way."

"Um… can I persuade you otherwise? I wouldn't want you to blow your cover," Eight said.

"Then don't make me worry," Three said.

"... Understood," Eight said. She was a little intimidated by the fire in her girlfriend's eyes. Maybe she was a  _ little _ too passionate about her protection of Eight. But… it was sweet.

Hopefully Eight would be able to be just as protective of herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, serious time for a second here.
> 
> First of all, leave any comment you want to about the chapter before reading on, because the rest of this note won't be about the chapter, and I want to hear your undiluted thoughts on what I actually wrote. You can edit your comment to include thoughts on this note afterwards.
> 
> Have you made your comment? Good.
> 
> So... I'm sure you've heard of China banning things from other countries recently, or forcing corporations to comply with their ridiculous standards in order to allow their presence in the country (Blizzard Entertainment, the NBA, etc.).
> 
> I've been eyeing this practice warily over the past several months, and though I don't like to get political, this has crossed the line.
> 
> China has banned Archive of Our Own.
> 
> I'm serious. The website has been shut down across China, and the Organization for Transformative Works (Ao3's creator) wasn't even notified about it. They only found out when Chinese readers and writers alike reached out to them.
> 
> This is frankly unacceptable. This seems to be a further play in the Chinese government's attempt to censor any and all queer media. And it's a given that the practice is homophobic and horrible, but this is even worse, because this is the work of new writers, casual writers, passionate writers... none of us are paid to do what we do. We just want our work to be seen. That's all the payment we need.
> 
> The Chinese government has taken that right away from an entire country of people, and I'm fucking furious.
> 
> Many of you might be wondering what there is to do about the situation, and... I don't have an answer for you. Even if 100% of the people on this site signed a petition, the Chinese government would probably laugh in our faces, and that's assuming that they even pay attention to us. They are powerful enough that they don't have to care who they step over to get what they want. (As an American, I know what it's like to have a country that does that.)
> 
> So the best I can do now is raise awareness about the situation. If you know other people who use this site, reader or writer, let them know. This is an affront to the concept of free speech and press, and I can't stand for it.
> 
> Alright, rant over. Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Now you can leave your thoughts on either the cephalogays or the... essay I just wrote. I hope you have a nice day or middle of the night!


	6. Chapter 6

Three couldn't believe she just let Eight go off on her own like that. It was…  _ so _ stupid. It wasn't that Three didn't have trust in her girlfriend's capabilities- quite the opposite, in fact. Eight had made it through situations more difficult than anything that Three had ever had to face. The only real danger to the octoling was herself, which was exactly what Three was worried about. Eight had some mental health issues, that was undeniable. Three just hoped beyond hope that they wouldn't endanger her precious, innocent, wonderful girlfriend.

Hence why Three should have pushed harder to go with her, hence why she was really frustrated with herself, hence why she was trudging through the residential area alone. But… she just couldn't say no to the girl. It was like Eight had a power over her. The octoling so rarely put her foot down on something, so when she did Three couldn't help but let her get away with it.

In summary, Three was pissed off with herself.

And it wasn't just about her girlfriend going off on her own. After parting ways with her, Three did what Eight suggested and asked some more octarians for details about an octoling with pale-green eyes. It turned out there was one in the very top layer of the residential area, and they had just missed her! So there Three was, backtracking up some creaking, metal staircases to go back to the very first place they had searched. All while feeling like an idiot.

Three sighed as she reached her second staircase, rubbing her hand over the edge of the worn guard railing. This trip was not going as planned, which was weird considering her clear  _ lack _ of planning.

Suddenly, a purple-tentacled octoling dashed past, ramming hard into Three's shoulder on the way.

"Hey!" Three shouted.

"Sorry, bye!" the octoling shouted back, shoving something into her pocket. It looked like a wallet.

Wait…

Three patted her own pocket. It was empty. She just got fucking pickpocketed.

"You get the fuck back here!" she shouted before breaking into a sprint up the staircase after the fleeing octoling thief.

This was bad. If her money got taken, Three could live with it. But that wallet  _ also _ had her license, her turf war registration card, her NSS ID... All of those were dead giveaways that she was not supposed to be here.

"Give that back!" Three yelled out in a rage.

The pickpocketer only glanced back before increasing her pace. Three did the same. If this was going to be a match of cardio, Three was going to win.

However, it seemed that it wasn't going to be that simple. The octoling fled to the edge of the residential platform, hopped on top of the railing, then leaped off to what seemed like an inevitable splatting in the abyss. However, Three peered over in time to see the burglar catch the railing of the residential platform below the one the agent was on and deftly swing herself onto solid ground again.

"Shit, Jesus Christ," Three said under her breath. But if the thief thought the agent wasn't stupid enough to try and follow, she was sorely mistaken.

Three vaulted the railing, then swiveled herself midair to grab the same piece of pipe railing that her pursuee had. Using her momentum, she slung herself forward, just like the octoling did, but, y'know, cooler. She realized instantly upon her feet touching the ground that she still had too much velocity and she dove into a combat roll to distribute the force.

She reached a stop, then stood back to her full height. A few meters in front of her, the octoling was staring in shock, clearly surprised that she didn't get away with her stunt.

"Give. That. Back." Three said through her teeth. She was done with this game.

Apparently the octoling wasn't, however. She turned tail and  _ sprinted _ away.

"Oh come ON! Give it up!" Three shouted before running after her.

The thief was fast, and that was annoying. But Three was committed to being even faster and even more annoying.

"You know I'm not going to stop chasing after you. Just give it up and cut your losses!" Three shouted, to no avail.

The pickpocketer grabbed a bystander by the shoulders and shoved them at Three. In response, Three leaped up, springboarded off of the startled octoling's shoulders, and ended up even closer to her target. It would take more than that to stop Agent fucking Three.

What could stop her, however, was the piece of loose metal piping that the robber suddenly swung at her head.

*CLANG*

Three was knocked to the ground, now with a brand new, complimentary headache. Fuck.

She was stubborn, though, so she shakily got back to her feet. The pickpocketer tried to swing the pipe again, but Three grabbed it.

"Not this time, fucker," she said, yanking the blunt object from her assailant's hand and letting it clatter to the metal floor.

The octoling, wide-eyed and clearly having not expected things to turn out this way, dashed away just before Three could grab her.

"You've gotta be f- GAHH!" Three growled in sheer frustration.

The octoling scrambled back up the staircase they had started at, with Three close behind. At the top, Three was prepared for the chase to start all over again, but her thief ran headlong into another octoling and was knocked onto her ass.

"Hira," the new octoling said sternly, having not budged at all from being run into.

The thief, apparently named Hira, stared wide-eyed up at the octoling standing above her. "Y-yes, General? Ma'am?" she stuttered out.

Three froze up almost as much as the thief did. General? Oh god. This was not a good place for Three to be right now.

"I assume that she took something from you?" the general asked Three without taking her gaze off of the guilty octoling.

"Uh, y-yeah. She, uh... she took my wallet," Three said.

"Typical," the general said. She bent down and patted Hira's pockets before extracting Three's stolen belonging. Thankfully she didn't examine it before tossing it to the half-inkling. She started speaking to the guilty party again, but this time her voice was a bit softer. "Hira, this is the second time that you've been caught doing this. Next time, I won't be able to save you from suspicion. You  _ know _ how much trouble you could get in."

Hira solemnly nodded from the ground. The general extended a hand, which the pickpocketer took and was pulled up to her feet.

"Go home. You know there are plenty of people who will help you with getting your little brother his medicine. You don't need to resort to this," the general said.

Hira nodded. "Thank you, Ma'am."

"You don't have to call me that while I'm here. I'm just Lunara. The person who wants to help you," the general said.

"Right, thank you Lunara," Hira said, before walking away.

Three breathed a sigh of relief. At least she probably wouldn't have to worry about being robbed again.

"So what's your story? I don't recognize you."

Three froze again. She turned her head to see the general looking right at her. As their eyes met, the octoling's grew wider. For a moment, Three thought she had been found out. If a  _ general _ figured out that she was Agent Three, then it was all over. But… no, that didn't fit the expression on the octoling's face. The expression in her… pale-green eyes…

"Actually… I… I think I do recognize you," the general said with awe and disbelief in her voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I uploaded this chapter quite late, but that's alright. I made up for it by having Three get bludgeoned!
> 
> But now she may have found who she was looking for...
> 
> Feel free to comment about anything your heart desires, or anything that it doesn't! I hope you all have the best of days! It's 2:40 a.m., so I'm 'onna sleep now! Toodles!


	7. Chapter 7

Eight was out of her depth. She knew that. And she knew that the decision she was making was irrational and foolhardy. But she couldn't help it. That base was calling to her. It was bringing back memories like nothing else she had experienced since those memories were taken from her in the first place. She  _ had _ to go.

The estranged octoling carefully made her way across some rickety balconies and walkways. Everything here felt cold, dark and metallic, but it wasn't unfamiliar to her. Well, that was obvious, but it didn't  _ feel _ unfamiliar. She could almost recall what it felt like to step barefoot on this metal-grated flooring, the smell of it when it had rusted, the sound when she idly strummed her fingers across it. The area wasn't welcoming, but there was something about it that felt like home.

She had reached her destination. Large, concrete walls and several guards separated her from the place that her mind so desperately called her to.

These walls… she'd seen these walls…

~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ knew that she wasn't supposed to be here. It was against every rule that- _

No. She couldn't get carried away by her memories right now. She had to resist them. Just like Three said, those memory flashes could end up being really bad for her. So not now. She had to fight them back.

A guard turned their head a little in Eight's direction, and she immediately dodged out of their line of sight. What was she doing? This was so risky! She literally decided to go to what seemed like the single most fortified area in this kettle!

Eight silently sighed. She was all but committed at this point. So… it was time to find a way in. She peeked back out from her hiding space and found no guards looking her way. She looked for any unguarded openings in the wall, but found none. It seemed like her options were either the heavily-guarded door in the front, or going over the wall… where the guards were.

Or maybe…

Eight hopped up on the platform's rightmost railing and carefully balanced on it. She began to realize that she didn't need to worry too much about being spotted- the guards seemed to be much more concerned about people getting out than people getting in.

Eight precariously made her way across the railing. The fortified wall went all the way to the edge of the platform, not leaving much walking room, but the railing still persisted alongside it. As long as Eight was careful, she could make it to where the barrier met the wall of the kettle.

As she reached her destination, she was delighted to see exactly what she had been hoping for- there was a small hole just big enough for an octopus to squeeze through between the two surfaces. It looked like some of the concrete had crumbled and fallen away in one way or another… or maybe it had been dug away. It wasn't really Eight's place at the moment to wonder how such a thing may have happened, she just needed to make use of her good luck.

She shifted forms, hopped into the crack, then squeezed in and popped out the other side. In front of her as she emerged were some crates, which helped keep her out of the sightlines of the guards. She returned to her octoling form and crouched with her back to the tallest of the crates. She listened carefully to any footsteps and occasionally peeked her head out to look for an opening. Once she got one, she darted from box to box towards a doorway and quickly slipped inside. The hallway that she found herself in was… strange. It was surrounded by a large tube of coiled plastic that reminded Eight of Three's vacuum cleaner.

It occurred to her that this must have been the connection between two different kettles. She supposed that there had to be connections between them somewhere, or otherwise there would be a lot more octarians passing through on the surface of Octo Canyon.

Upon passing to the other side of the tube, Eight was greeted by three different doors, presumably into different rooms. She decided to follow what her gut was telling her and entered the center door. Upon walking in, she found the atmosphere of the place to be… different. She was now in a dark, enclosed room, the floor filled with thin, empty blankets. At the far end of each was a sandbag, seemingly for use as a pillow. Which… didn't exactly sound comfortable. On the walls were posters of propaganda for the Octarian Army and DJ Octavio. They seemed to want whoever lived in here not to forget their role.

Wait-

Before Eight could continue her thoughts, the sound of muffled footsteps started approaching from behind a door on the other side of the room.

Uh, shoot, she needed to hide. She looked all around for a place to conceal herself and found a horizontal metal beam above her that was supporting the roof of the small structure. That would work. She just had to find a way to get up to it.

The jingling of keys outside of the door. Too close. Eight needed to move. Without time to think of other options, she went with the first one that came to mind- as much as she hated it, she learned  _ something _ from her second trip into Kamabo.

She changed to octo form, then super jumped directly into the roof. After hitting her head hard on the metal surface, she came back down on top of the crossbeam and was able to grab onto it with her arms and legs despite her dazed state. As soon as she got her torso shakily balanced on the beam, the door swung open.

"Alright, you worthless pieces of garbage, go to sleep and try not to disappoint me tomorrow," a familiar voice said. Several octolings were shoved into the room and stumbled to the blankets. There seemed to be seven of them, and they all looked pretty battered. An all-too-familiar situation.

The door slammed closed, and then the man's voice from before came through in a muffled state. "I swear, this group of 'soldiers' is the worst one I've had in my forty years of running this division. They are completely useless and undisciplined."

The octolings in the room clearly heard what he said as well as Eight did, and they started to look ashamed of themselves.

Eight nodded spitefully at herself. She knew where she was. She had just stepped into the facility where the selected cannon fodder of the military were prepared for suicide missions. The facility that none of them were allowed to leave from, as evident by the door Eight had arrived through sealing below her. She had stepped into the place where she had spent most of her life being indoctrinated and brainwashed into not valuing her own life. The place she had spent the two years after the Inkantation trying desperately to escape. And she had just walked straight back in.

In summary, Eight had just made a profoundly bad decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, y'all. I know things are scary out there right now. Some of you might even be self-quarantining. But really we've all just got to keep our chins up and take the blows as they come.
> 
> Now, my friends who decided that reading angst was the preferable way to destress in high-stress situations, Eight has once again found her platoon! Great! Happy reunions and everything! Except for maybe the fact that this was where she was physically abused and was sent to die multiple times. That... might put a damper on the celebration.
> 
> Be sure to wash your hands, comment, and then wash your hands again! Be safe out there. We will make it through this.


	8. Chapter 8

"We have the same eyes…" the general, Lunara, said, tears in her eyes. "Are… are you…"

"I probably am, considering your reaction," Three said rather coldly. She crossed her arms defiantly as she examined the woman before her through a narrowed eye. She was taller than Three, with blue-tipped black tentacles tied into a bun on the back of her head. The subtle bags under her eyes betrayed her age, if only slightly.

It seemed that she, too, was examining Three. Particularly her forehead.

"You're bleeding," she commented.

Three felt at her head, right at her tentacle line, and found it to be warm and wet.

"Here, let's go into my house. I'll patch you up," Lunara said.

"That won't be necessary," Three said, recrossing her arms.

"Please. I've had too many soldiers die on me with wounds they thought weren't serious," Lunara pressed. "Let me dress it. And… maybe we can catch up while I'm doing it."

Everything in Three was fighting to say no to the other woman, but for some reason that she couldn't fully explain, she slowly nodded instead. The general waved for her to follow, and follow she did.

They entered a residence that was a bit bigger than those surrounding it. Inside, it was nearly as metallic as the area outside, but it was quite a bit more… homely than Three had been expecting. A sofa, some carpets, a nice kitchen, and a couple other rooms that Three assumed were to a similar standard of comfort. There were no powered lights inside, but multiple jars of bioluminescent creatures kept the area sufficiently lit, if a bit inconsistently.

The general pulled over a chair made of a material that seemed rare down here: wood, and motioned for Three to sit down. The agent reluctantly did so.

"Stay here for a moment, please," Lunara said, before heading into one of the unseen rooms. Maybe a bathroom, maybe… something else.

If Three was being honest with herself, her first instinct was to run. There was every possibility that this strange woman was on her way to grab a weapon to attack her with. There was also a good chance that she was mistaking Three for someone else, and would freak out if she realized that she was an inkling. These were all likely, and very dangerous, possibilities. Three should really just escape while she still could.

However, her octoling host returned speedily, removing that option. She was holding a first aid kit instead of an Octoshot, so that was something.

Lunara pulled up a seat in front of Three and examined the injury. Then she took a wet washcloth out and dabbed at the bleeding spot. No words were said, which made the situation increasingly tense for Three.

After cleaning the wound, the general got up from her seat and went behind her guest's chair, much to Three's chagrin. Even more concerning to the half-inkling was when the octoling undid her ponytail and let her two,  _ clearly inkling  _ tentacles fall to her sides. That was it. There was no way that Three could hide her race now. But when the general came back in front of her, she didn't look surprised in the slightest.

"I imagine that isn't your normal tentacle style. Your tentacles looked like they were straining to hold it," Lunara said, not even commenting on how Three was unmistakingly an inkling.

Which meant that she already knew the truth, which added more credit to the theory that both women were already pretty certain about.

As the general started applying a bandage to the wound, her focused expression made way for a small smile. "I… honestly never thought I would see my daughter again. But here she is in front of me, visiting the mother who has missed her so much."

Three immediately lurched to her feet, causing the general to release her hands from the bandage.

"I am not  _ visiting _ ," Three spat out. "I came here to figure out the truth about my past. I have every intention of leaving this place as soon as I can."

Lunara looked taken aback. "But… you came all the way here-"

"I don't care about visiting the woman who didn't even want me. The woman who consigned me to a living hell!" Three said, borderline shouting.

An expression of solemn realization settled on the older woman's face. "Oh. I… I see." She sighed. "At the very least, please sit back down. I'm not done with your bandage yet. And… maybe I can explain myself. If… that's what you want."

Three scowled, but lowered herself back into the seat. "What is there to explain, Lunara?"

The octoling seemed a bit dejected by the direct use of her name, but she recovered quickly. "Well… why don't I start from the beginning?"

"Seems as good a place as any," Three added pettily.

"... This was back when I was just a lieutenant. Back then… well, things were even worse than they are now," Lunara said. "Being down here truly felt like we were locked in a prison with no escape. It just felt hopeless." Lunara took her hands off of Three's forehead after finishing with the bandage and moved them to her own lap. "I was lucky enough, however, to stumble upon a crack in the kettle wall while training. A chance at freedom. And I took it."

Three slouched in her chair. It seemed like this was going to be a long story.

"In the outside world… I was pretty lost. I didn't know how anything in Inkopolis worked. But I did meet an inkling man who charmed me and, well, one thing led to another."

"And?" Three asked.

"I returned to the kettles the next morning. I felt… guilty. It felt like I was betraying my kind by leaving, so I came back and vowed to myself never to leave again. Over the next nine months, two things happened. First, I received two rapid promotions of rank in the Army. With them came more liberties, but also more responsibilities. And second, I realized I was pregnant with you. And… I was so happy. I had no idea that it was possible, but I was so excited to create life. I lied to everyone I knew and told them that my baby bump came from another octoling, and they believed it. And then, you came into the world."

"And you were dissatisfied," Three said.

"No, no, honey," Lunara said. "I loved you with all of my heart. You were my beautiful baby girl, and in that moment you meant the whole world to me." Her hands slowly started scrunching up her uniform pants. "But once the bliss died down a bit and I could think about things objectively, I realized that you looked  _ exactly _ like an inkling baby. And immediately I was terrified. Not for myself, but for you." She sighed. "In the position I was in, it was inevitable that DJ Octavio would find out about your existence eventually. And…" a dark expression crossed her face, "I know what he does with children that are deemed 'defective.'"

Three swallowed down an involuntary lump in her throat. Whatever Lunara was talking about seemed very unpleasant.

"You have to understand, honey, I so badly wanted to keep you. I really, really did, but I knew that it would just be consigning you to a gruesome fate. So I snuck back out of the kettle and gave you up."

Three's hands were trembling at this point, and she couldn't get them to stop. Rage? Sadness? She didn't know.

"You left me at the wrong doorstep…" she mumbled.

"Huh?" Lunara questioned. "I… I left you with your birth father."

"Do you know what happened to me after you left me there?" Three said, now at a much louder volume.

"I… I don't understand what you mean," Lunara said.

"Let me make it crystal clear, then," Three said before pointing at a mark on her exposed midsection. "You see this? This is from when the man you entrusted me to threw a book at me. And not just any book- a full-sized, hardcover fucking dictionary. I was six. And this?" She pointed at a mark just peeking out from the armhole of the octarian uniform top. "This is from when his wife hit me with a fire poker as a punishment. Seven years old. And those are just a few of the ones that left scars. So yeah, you  _ sure _ saved me from a bunch of suffering. What a hero you are."

Lunara looked shocked. "He…. I didn't know that he… how could… I don't…"

"You left me with an abusive piece of shit who was married to  _ another _ abusive piece of shit. Why didn't you just raise me up on the surface, huh?"

It took a moment, but the general partially recovered from her stupor. "I… I couldn't. There were people who depended on me ever since I was promoted."

"What, like DJ Octavio? I'm sure he was really needing the extra hands in his plan for genocide," Three said through her teeth.

"I don't agree with his prejudices or his methods. But… people who don't do what he or his inner circle say down here lose their right to free will," Lunara said. "I've known this for a long time, and it has only recently started becoming common knowledge. I couldn't let the octolings under me suffer by being left unaware of this."

"... Whatever," Three said, crossing her arms and turning away in her chair.

"I… didn't know. About him. I thought… because you were his actual child that he would be…" the general drew a shaky breath. "A-and your eye. Is that his fault too?"

Three touched her eyepatch. Somehow, she constantly forgot it was there. "... No. That's… unrelated. And complicated."

"Well… I'm willing to talk about it, if you want," the octoling said.

Three snapped forward in her chair again and stood up. "No, you know what?  _ Sure _ . Let's talk about my problems." She started pacing the room, the metallic 'clonk, clonk' of her boots hitting the floor setting a background beat for her statements. "I've been abused. I've starved. I've nearly lost so many people close to me, and I have done so much that I regret in my life. And if you think talking with the estranged mother that I only recently figured out I have, the mother who  _ doesn't even know her daughter's name _ … if you think that's going to solve my problems, then you're just stupid."

The general looked heartbroken. "You've had such a hard life…" she said, barely above a whisper. Then she looked Three in the eye. "You're right, you're right. I know I… I've failed as a mother. I… may I know your name? I-If you'd be willing to tell me?"

Three met her gaze. "Three. As in,  _ Agent  _ Three," she said. She probably should have been more careful with her volume while saying that, but right then she couldn't give a damn. Lunara did look a bit surprised, though. "I've spent the last two years of my life fighting against octolings. Hunting them down, even. I was one of the few inklings allowed to know about the threat they posed. And with that job I felt like the world made sense. All the puzzle pieces fit together. But then suddenly  _ good _ octolings start showing up and threw a wrench into what I thought I knew… and then I find out that the whole time I've been fighting octolings it turns out I was one too, and… and…"

Unexpectedly, tears started gathering in Three's eye. She fought them back as hard as she could, but they just came so suddenly. God… she hated crying. She didn't want to cry here, in front of this…  _ stranger _ . But she couldn't hold it back. A tear fell down her cheek.

"A-are you alright?" Lunara asked.

"NO!!!" Three shouted in her face. "Do I look okay?! It feels like the whole rug has been pulled out from under me! I don't know anything anymore! Nothing makes sense! I just… I just…" she trailed off. There was no sense in explaining what she didn't even understand. She just stubbornly wiped her tears away.

"I… know I can't possibly understand what you are going through," Lunara said. "Your life… has gone so differently than what I wanted for you. And… wow, you are  _ the _ Agent Three… this probably hits you harder than it would anyone else. But I want to be here for you now. I know I've never been before, but I am now, if you'll let me be."

Three kept trying to bite back her tears. She was unsuccessful. "... I barely know you…"

"I know," Lunara said.

"You didn't want me…" Three hiccuped out.

"That's not true," Lunara said.

Three was silent then, except for her shaky breaths. Lunara sat in front of her patiently, waiting with baited breath for her response.

Slowly, at a volume that could barely be heard, Three whispered, "... Mom...?"

Lunara smiled brightly with watery eyes. "Three. My beautiful baby girl, Three."

Then the half-octoling let everything out. Tears streamed down her cheek and sobs emerged from her throat. She was a mess. She hated crying. She hated it so much. But her mother stood up and hugged her, cradled her, and for a moment Three didn't mind the vulnerability of it all. She just felt… complete.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn, this one was long and _packed_ with emotions. I hope it turned out well, because it was hard to write and even harder to edit.
> 
> Now, I make a lot of my characters cry. I understand this. But it's rare that I can do it to Three. She doesn't let her walls down very often. It takes some monumental emotions to break her down. But despite this... I kind of think that this is one of the happier chapters I've written in this series.
> 
> Comment so that I can admire your comments while sitting at home, unable to leave! Please! I'm begging you. : )


	9. Chapter 9

Eight had no idea what her next move was. She was stuck in a room with a bunch of octolings whom she had no idea of the intentions of. Perhaps they were friends and perhaps not, but Eight was trapped there regardless.

Trapped…

_Tears streamed out of_ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _'s eyes. This couldn't be the end. It couldn't be. She had come here as a part of a team of three members of her platoon. It should have been simple- they were just meant to fix a relay towards the bottom of one of the kettles._

 _They knew that they were probably out of the range of any respawn platforms, but they had thought the risk of being splatted was rather small. And_ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _was willing to take that risk for the sake of the Octarian Army. They had given her everything. She owed her whole life to them. She would do anything she needed to ensure that they thrived. That DJ Octavio could thrive._

_But things had gone so awry. The relay was completely out of control. It was sparking wildly and causing nearby systems to overheat._

_The first accident was a system explosion that knocked a support beam out from one of the platforms. One of_ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _'s teammates had been standing on it, and he dropped into the abyss along with the metal panel that failed to sustain his weight. He would never return._

 _The second accident came directly from the relay itself._ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _'s other surviving teammate had been working on the device, trying to get it to a stable state. He pulled a battery out of the relay, but suddenly a massive bolt of electricity jolted out from the system. It went right through him and struck upwards into the ceiling, knocking loose several pieces of heavy machinery. As_ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _'s teammate fell to the floor, crispy and dead, a massive load of metal and wiring fell on top of the last living octoling._

_So there she was, trapped under a heap of junk and fearing for her life. She could just barely see the fried body of her teammate from behind all of the equipment, and it did not help with her fear of mortality._

_She felt at her side with the only arm that was not pinned. Blood. Something had impaled her somewhere. She couldn't even tell where. Everything in her body hurt._

_She cried out for help. She cried out again and again, more desperately each time until her voice was rough and sore. No response._

_For a moment she wondered if someone would send a rescue team for her. No… no one would waste the resources on someone as insignificant as her. It would be foolish. She was alone._

_This was the end. She was going to die. Even worse, she was going to fail the Octarian Army._

_…_

_No. She wasn't going to fail the Octarian Army._

_She instantly knew what she was doing wrong, how she was failing- she was fearing for her life. And that was so illogical. Her life was so, so small in comparison to the cause she was serving. She was worthless, except for this one job that she could do, right now._

_Using every bit of strength that she could muster,_ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _pushed on the pile of machinery. It was so much, it was so heavy. She felt like her muscles were exploding, but she kept going. Her other arm was freed, and she used it to continue pushing. She ignored the crooked nail still impaled through her arm. She ignored the searing pain as a piece of rebar was slowly pulled out of her torso. When she had lifted the pile far enough, she also started pushing up with her legs. And finally, finally, she tipped the junk pile off of herself._

_She was free, but her job wasn't done yet. She struggled to her feet and limped to the body of her teammate. She reached into his charred fanny pack and drew out everything that she would need. Then she got to work. Narrowly avoiding jolts of electricity, she fought her way to the relay and got to work on it. She was fully aware that her body was working on nothing but adrenaline. After the job was done, she would likely not be able to move at all. But what happened to her after the job was done didn't matter._

_And then, she had done it. The battery was replaced. The wiring was fixed. The violent malfunctioning had stopped. She won the day._

~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _collapsed to the ground, now whimpering in pain. She was spent. The searing anguish from her torso and arm had finally caught up to her. She shakily reached a hand to the nail in her other arm, hesitated, then ripped it out. She screamed out in pain and let the bloodied piece of shrapnel fall through the holes in the metal grate below her._

_She laid there for what felt like hours, not sure whether death would take her or not. She was in some sort of state between consciousness and unconsciousness. Eventually, though, woozy from blood loss, she started crawling her way up the numerous ramps, ignoring the pain of the action. If she survived, that meant that she could be of more use to the Army. So she had to get back to base._

_Would her accomplishment be celebrated when she returned? No… no, not likely. In fact, she anticipated that she would be scolded for the collateral damage caused to the surrounding machinery. That was fair, though. She should have done a better job._

_She eventually managed to push herself shakily up to her feet and hobble the rest of the way up the ramps. It hurt, but it was more efficient._

~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _morosely shook her head. This hadn't been a very good thirteenth birthday…_

"Wh-who are you?"

Eight, startled out of her memories, lost her balance on the elevated beam and fell down to the floor below, right in front of all of the octolings in the room. She landed on her rear end, and instantly jumped up to her feet.

"There… there aren't supposed to be any new people here…" said an octoling.

"Are you an inspector? We've been following every rule, we promise!"

Eight looked around at all of those who surrounded her. They looked… afraid. Terrified, even. Some of them looked rather roughed-up, too. It filled Eight's hearts with the worst kind of nostalgia.

"No, wait!" A female octoling with very thick, long tentacles said. She rushed to one of the blankets and dug around under it for a moment. She then took a sheet of paper out from the cloth. She examined it, then looked up at Eight. "It is! It is her!"

"Who?" another octoling asked.

"It's the lady from the poster! The one who accomplished four of our type of missions!" The long-tentacled octoling said. "But… you're supposed to be dead!"

Eight was befuddled. There was a poster of her?

"U-um, may I see that please?" Eight asked.

The long-tentacled octoling blushed and looked a bit starstruck as she walked over and presented the aged paper to Eight.

It indeed featured a picture of her. Then, at the bottom, typed in neat octoling characters:

She never gave up when things got hard.

She kept going, even through the threat of death.

She fought hard for our people.

She was a loyal soldier.

Be like T-

And that was it. The corner of the paper where her name would have been had become so worn and smudged that it was completely illegible. Eight was disappointed by this, but she didn't linger on it for too long.

"I… yes, this is me," Eight said.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" the octoling who had brought her the poster said. "You are my hero! You're everyone's hero! The things you did have kept us able to fight against the monsters up on the surface!"

"I-" Eight started, but then stopped herself. She didn't know how to respond to that. These people had been lied to their whole lives about the surface, she was sure of it. Should she tell them that? That their idea of the inklings wasn't the truth? Would it even be fair to do that to them?

No… she didn't think it would be.

"Yes, I did a lot of… challenging things here," Eight settled for. "I honestly can't remember most of them."

"But you survived them! Four of them, apparently!" another octoling said. "All of us heard that you died on your fourth…"

"No, I just… moved on from this position," Eight said.

"You're lucky…" said a voice from the corner. Eight turned to see a young female octoling with thin gray tentacles sitting in the shadows. She had a dark expression on her face, and also a black eye. There were bruises peeking out of the sleeves and neckline of her uniform. She clearly got a lot of punishment.

"Hm...?" was the only thing Eight could think to say.

"This platoon… they _want_ us to kill ourselves. All we are is tools to them. And sometimes… entertainment…" the skulking octoling said, shuddering. "You managed to get out… why would you come back…?"

"I… well, I lost my memories recently," Eight said. Rapidly, in response to the mildly confused looks she was receiving, she said, "It is a very long story. But I came back here in hopes of remembering some of what I lost."

"... You've walked back into your death…" the gray-tentacled octoling said.

"Oh, hush up. Stop being gloomy," the long-tentacled fangirl said. She then turned to Eight. "I'm sorry about her. Her attitude gets her in trouble a lot. That's why she's already been sent on two missions. _She's_ lucky to be alive."

Eight glanced back at the gray-tentacled octoling, who was now more or less sulking in the corner.

"She survived two missions?" Eight asked.

"Yeah. It puts her in second place behind you. But she's got a sour attitude about it," the long-tentacled octoling said.

Eight once again glanced at the octoling in the corner. Her fear was so justified. And she was clearly smarter than Eight was when she was here. This octoling knew exactly what was going on here, and was powerless to stop any of it.

"So, does the Sergeant know about this visit?" the cheerier octoling asked.

"Oh, um… well, no. I was just dropping by," Eight said.

"Oh, well I'm sorry that you are kind of locked in here. If you want, you can use one of the blankets," the long-tentacled inkling said. She pointed to a blanket near the door that Eight came from. "That one was Jerrin's, and… well, we don't think he's coming back from his mission… so you can use it."

"I… okay. Thank you," Eight said.

"I'm Akse, by the way," the octoling said, outstretching a hand which Eight shook. "And would you mind telling me your name? That part of the poster has always been smudged, so I'd like to connect a name to the legend."

"I'm sorry, I… when I lost my memories of this place, my name went with them," Eight said. "Right now I just go by Eight."

"Eight?" Akse said, tilting her head. "That name reminds me of… something… or someone…"

Uh oh.

"Ah, I'll remember some other time," Akse quickly dismissed, to Eight's relief.

"Akse, we have to sleep! We could get in real trouble!" said another octoling.

"R-right," Akse said, her bubbly, cheery demeanor melting away into fear for a moment. She turned back to Eight. "W-well, goodnight. It's been great to meet you. Let's talk more in the morning."

"Yeah, I'd like that," Eight said. She walked to the blanket she had been assigned and laid in it. Clearly she had become spoiled with Three's comfy, fluffy bed, because the cold, metallic floor was very uncomfortable to lay on. It made it very hard to feel restful in any capacity.

And as time went on with her staring at the ceiling, Eight started having thoughts that kept her from sleeping, too. How many octolings had this blanket belonged to? How many had left its comfort and never come back? Eight felt like she was laying in a crowded grave. So many names, most of which would be forgotten. Some of them might have been already.

Eight breathed a sigh through her nose. She knew she wouldn't be getting any good rest tonight. The only thing she could do was think about what she would do tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today has been a good day for me. It was my birthday today. I got to wake up to an awesome breakfast, got some new computer equipment, had some cake, and now it's the best part of the day- the part where I get to share the next chapter of Down Below with all of you!
> 
> So we got the grueling flashback of Eight's first mission, and then the grueling reality of the platoon in current times. And now Eight has insomnia. Look, I don't make the rules. W-well I guess I do, but... shaddup.
> 
> I want to take a moment to appreciate those of you who have bookmarked this fic. I know that action doesn't get highlighted often, but those bookmarks mean a lot. Thank you.
> 
> Finally, I'm running out of ways to tell you to comment, so just do it.


	10. Chapter 10

"I know it's probably nothing in comparison to where you're used to, but we octolings have worked really hard to make this place livable," Lunara said, gesturing out broadly at the whole of the cavernous society.

"Yeah… I can see all the effort that was put in," Three said, scratching at the bandage on her head. It was stopping the bleeding just fine, but it was just _ so _ damn uncomfortable to have on.

"I know you may think otherwise, but there are quite a few people down here who don't willingly follow our…" Lunara lowered her voice, "local dictator." She gave a mournful smile. "A lot of us just do what we have to in order to live happy lives. Especially after…"

"The Inkantation, right?" Three said. Her mother looked surprised at her knowledge. "Yeah, I know about it. I was kind of there when it happened."

"Yes, but… I'm surprised that you know about its effect," Lunara said.

"I know more things than you may think. Some good, some… bad," Three said, thinking about Eight for a moment. And then she started getting worried, and… Nope! Time to change topic. "So… you were there for the Inkantation, too?"

"Yes, but I hardly needed it," Lunara said. "DJ Octavio's songs were already less effective on me."

"Hm? Why's that?" Three asked.

Lunara tapped on her left ear. "I've been deaf on this side since I was born. It started off as an inconvenience for me, but now I couldn't be happier about being born this way. Octavio's music was still able to control me to a limited extent, sure, but it never was able to form any lasting impact. As soon as I was out of the music, I got my free will back. That's why I was able to get out of this place to have you, and it's something that most other octolings weren't able to experience until the Inkantation." She reached a hand out and rubbed a thumb under Three's eyepatch, then pinched her own deaf ear with her other hand. "I guess that means that we sort of match."

Three gave a little chuckle. "Yeah, guess so."

"So…" Lunara said, hesitating, "about the eyepatch…"

"You probably want to know how this happened, huh?" Three asked.

"... If you wouldn't mind," Lunara said.

"It's fine," Three said. "Despite what you may think, the surface isn't a completely safe place. And not just because of the Octarian Army. There are salmonids and riots and… a few months back, there was a new threat. A sort of… AI created by humans thousands and thousands of years ago."

"Humans? Really? They existed?" Lunara said, shocked.

"I know, right?" Three agreed. "Anyways, this thing could take people over with its goop. And I was unlucky enough to have it happen to me. The thing latched onto my eye, and the only way that the doctors could get it out of me was by removing the whole thing. So… yeah. Now I'm a cyclops."

"Hey now, that's rude to say about yourself," Lunara said.

"Eh, it's true, though," Three said. "It actually doesn't bother me that much. I've gotten pretty used to it."

"Well that's good, at least," Lunara said. "I'm still sorry that it happened to you, though."

"It's kind of par for the course," Three said. "I have the most dangerous job in all of Inkopolis. Something like this was bound to happen."

"So, is this trip a vacation, or…"

"Pretty much. I took time off to come find you. I wasn't expecting to actually  _ forgive _ you, but life's full of surprises, I guess," Three said.

"And I can't describe how happy that makes me," Lunara said. "But… I know this is sort of your job, but… coming down here all alone? Isn't that a bit reckless?"

"I didn't come down here alone," Three said with a smirk, but then it slowly faded. "Actually… give me a sec." She took a few steps away from the railing, then took an earpiece out of one of the (extremely tight) pockets in the octarian uniform she was wearing. She placed it in her ear.

"Eight? Hey Eight, you there?" Three asked into it. Suddenly, an extremely loud screech came through the speaker and Three reeled as she dropped the device.

"Are you okay?" her mom asked.

"I'm good, just… jeeze, that was loud," Three mumbled, rubbing her ear.

"Whoever you were trying to talk to was probably in a dead zone," Lunara said. "There are a few places down here where communications are jammed, whether naturally or intentionally."

"Well that's just great…" Three said. "I'm really worried about her… she decided to go off on her own, and now I can't even check up on her."

"Well, where did she go? Maybe I could ease your worries?" Lunara said.

"Umm…" Three searched down into the darkness past the railing, searching for… "There! That place," she said, pointing at the shrouded military installment.

"... Oh. There?" Lunara verified. "I've… actually never been down there. I've never been allowed to see that area."

"Wait, but you're a general!" Three said.

"I am, but Octavio is not a…  _ trusting _ person. Top secret areas are  _ very _ top secret."

Three frowned. "Great, so she's alone in one of the most secure, secret locations of this whole place. Fucking great."

"Hey, if she's anything like you, you have nothing to worry about," Lunara said, placing a comforting hand on Three's shoulder.

"Yeah, I guess you're right…" Three said, staring down at the place her girlfriend had disappeared into.

Come on, Eight. Find what you're looking for and come back as soon as you can...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Hello, sir. Do you happen to have the time?"
> 
> "Of course, friend. It is exactly half-past angst time."
> 
> Here we have Three bonding with her mother, combined with her worrying over her girlfriend. Because Eight has got herself in _quite_ a pickle.
> 
> In these somewhat dark times, your comments bring me life. And power. I WILL BECOME MORE POWERFUL THAN YOU CAN COMPREHEND!


	11. Chapter 11

Eight woke to the sound of blaring alarms. She hadn't even realized that she had fallen asleep. She leapt to her feet, kicking the blanket off of her legs and scanning the room. However, she found that the other octolings in the room were completely unconcerned by the noises as they started getting dressed in clothes from a pile at the side of the room. Was this how they woke up every day?

Her heart rate settled, Eight sighed and pulled her blanket back into place. With how little sleep she got, it was clear that this place was taking its toll on her.

Akse approached her once the alarms finally shut off. "Hey, Eight. Sleep well?"

"I slept… enough," Eight said.

"Good to hear," the cheery octoling said.

Eight looked past her and saw the gloomy octoling from the previous day, the one with the gray tentacles and all of the bruises.

"Um… I'm sorry, Akse… would you excuse me for a moment?" Eight said.

"Oh, um, sure! Take as much time as you need!" Akse said.

"Thank you."

Eight maneuvered across the room to the younger octoling who had just settled herself in the corner. Eight took a seat beside her. The gray-tentacled octoling hardly reacted to her presence at all.

"Hey, I didn't get your name yesterday," Eight said.

"... Zayne," the other octoling said. "Though you probably shouldn't be talking to me. If the higher-ups see you with me, they might treat you badly."

"Well that isn't fair…" Eight said.

They settled into a silence for a while before Zayne spoke again.

"... You weren't actually discharged from our platoon, were you?" she said. She caught on quickly.

Eight froze up a bit before saying, "Uh… um……. no. No, you're right, I wasn't."

"So… you escaped?" Zayne asked.

"I did," Eight said.

"Can I ask where you went?" Zayne asked. Her voice wavered a bit, as if thinking of freedom was bringing her to the brink of tears.

"I… well, I live on the surface now. With the inklings," Eight said.

"But… aren't they evil?" Zayne asked.

"Some of them struggle with accepting me, yes. But some of them have become great friends," Eight said. "I care a lot about some inklings, and they care about me."

"... Wow…" Zayne said. "I… I don't think anyone has ever cared about me. That sounds amazing."

Eight paused for a moment, deep in thought. Then she spoke again.

"... You could come with me, you know," Eight said. "I could get you out of here. You could live on the surface and never have to deal with the brutal treatment of this platoon again."

"... Thank you, but… this is really hard to say, but… no," Zayne said.

"No?" Eight said. That was not the response she had been expecting.

"I'm sorry, but… if the Sergeant notices I'm gone, everyone else here will suffer for it. And you are going to have a tough enough time getting out without me weighing you down."

"But… I can't just leave you here…"

"You belong up there," Zayne said, pointing upwards with a battered finger. "It sounds like you made a life up there. My place is down here, taking the punishments I receive. At this point, it's all I'm good for."

"Zayne…" Eight didn't know what to say. What  _ does _ one say to such a self-destructive decision?

"The door will open soon, and the Sergeant will probably have us do something painful or humiliating. If you don't want to get stuck here forever, you need to hide. Just like you did yesterday, when we came in," Zayne said. "The back door will open, and I assume that's how you came in anyways. I don't know what you should do from there, but just stay out of sight from any guards."

"Zayne," Eight cut in. "Are you sure? Really, take a moment to think about this. You could have a happy life on the surface."

Zayne morosely shook her head. "There just isn't a way it could work out."

Suddenly, Akse popped up beside them. "So, you're leaving, huh?"

"Uh, um, yes. I am," Eight said.

"No need to be nervous," Akse said, grinning. "I can understand you wanting to get as far away from here as possible. It's a bit of a brutal environment."

"I… I wish I could get the rest of you out of here with me…" Eight said.

"You may be a legend down here, but I don't think any of us expect you to pull that off," Akse said.

"Yeah, our fates are sealed. No use fighting it," Zayne said. "You've gotta go hide. The Sergeant will be here any minute now."

"I… okay," Eight said. She looked to the ceiling.

"Wait, before you go…" Akse said before rushing to her blanket and pulling out the poster of Eight. "I want you to have this. I'll feel happy knowing that you have it."

"Thank you," Eight said, accepting the gift. Then her eyes hardened a bit. "Some day, I will find a way to get you out of here. All of you."

"Don't worry about us," Zayne said. "Hide. Now. Please."

Eight nodded, then catapulted herself into the ceiling again. Upon landing on the crossbeam, she reeled yet again from the collision. It was probably a bad thing that she was starting to get used to the sensation.

The octolings on the ground stared up at her for a moment, clearly finding the self-bludgeoning to be a little bit questionable, but snapped to attention as the door clicked.

"Alright, you lot, get up!" said that familiar voice as the door swung open. "It's training time, and I don't want to hear any whining. I've got a headache, and if it gets worse I'm holding  _ each _ of you personally responsible."

"Yes sir," the vast majority of the octolings below Eight said.

"What was that?" the Sergeant shouted out.

"Yes sir!" All of the octolings repeated. All except for one.

The Sergeant stomped into the room, giving Eight a better look of the man. Graying tentacles, a hardened expression, an intimidating stride, and fingers clad in many, many rings were all aspects that started to bring some memories to the surface, which Eight suppressed as soon as they came up. It was not the time.

The Sergeant stopped directly in front of Zayne, who was still sitting on the floor. "Every time with you. When will you learn that your insubordination will only cause you pain? When I enter the room, I expect you to stand at attention, and when I give an order, I expect you to say 'Yes sir'. Do you understand me?"

Zayne stayed silently, seemingly out of a combination of defiance and sheer terror.

The Sergeant suddenly grabbed her by the tentacles and tugged, forcing her to her feet as she cried out in pain through gritted teeth.

"What do you say, soldier?" the horrible man said, seeming all-too-happy with the situation.

Eight instinctively grabbed the beam below her, as if to stop herself from following her instincts that said to jump down and intervene.

Zayne, through the tears of pain in her eyes, briefly looked up at Eight and weakly shook her head, clearly telling Eight not to get involved. The suffering octoling on the floor swallowed down any amount of pride she had left and spoke. "Y-yes… sir…"

The commanding officer just stood and glared at Zayne for a moment. Then he tugged  _ hard  _ on her tentacles, eliciting one more pained cry from the young octoling, before letting go and allowing her to sink to the ground.

"Everyone get your asses in gear! It's going to be another rough day of training for all of you, I can just tell," the Sergeant said. All of the octolings rushed out of the door. Even Zayne pushed herself to a standing position and hobbled out with the rest of the group. As he followed after them, the Sergeant let a self-gratified smirk form on his face. Then he stepped out and shut the door behind him.

Now, Eight wasn't generally a fighty person. She had heard Three talk frequently about people she wanted to punch, or about incredibly convoluted and specific ways that she wanted to hurt certain people, and Eight had never really understood that drive to cause pain to someone.

All at once, Eight understood now what that felt like.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What is time anymore. Is it yesterday yet? Or will next week be happening this month? And what about tomorrow? Is it happening two hours ago or fifteen minutes from now? Or is today tomorrow? MY INTERNAL CLOCK HAS NEVER BEEN SO CONFUSED!
> 
> Anyways, Eight is now on her way out after making some friends and feeling remorse over her incapability of helping them. Here's to her safe travels, and possible further angst!
> 
> Com ment. Thanks.


	12. Chapter 12

This was not going to be easy.

Eight hopped down off of her perch when she heard the back door to the room click. The exit was open. But as Eight peeked through the crack at the bottom of the door, she could see some boots shuffling just outside. Uh oh.

Eight had to think fast. Whoever it was seemed like they were about to come in, and she couldn't risk getting spotted. She could possibly slip out as they came in, but then she would have to come up with a plan for how she would get past the guards of the installation, as she would likely not get much time to breathe between leaving the room and dodging more attention. Option B was to take whoever came through the door head-on, but… well, that wasn't the stealthiest option out there.

So… sneak past and figure out what to do along the way. Just like Three would.

The door hissed open, and Eight made herself flush with the wall beside it. She put a hand on her Octoshot just in case, but hoped she wouldn't have to use it.

A young octoling, likely not more than eight or nine years old, came in with a cart of cleaning and sterilizing supplies. He was wearing headphones and head-bopping to whatever he was listening to. Probably DJ Octavio's music. It seemed that even the normal octolings were indoctrinated at a young age.

Eight quickly slid out of the room, and then immediately started looking for more cover as she heard footsteps approach. The best that she could find was, again, making herself flush against the wall next to the tube connecting the two kettles.

A guard came through and, thankfully, didn't check around the corners. She simply mosied through the tube, looking incredibly bored, and gave a cursory glance around the room. Eight used this opportunity to get into the guard's blind spot and moved around her quietly to stay in it.

Eventually, the guard turned and left back through the tube, and Eight was thankful that she had decided to move. Now, however, she needed to get her plan together quickly before any other guards had a chance to appear. She felt at her pockets, just to see what she had to work with. She had an Octoshot (too risky, the guards would sound the alarm as soon as they respawned), the poster that Akse gave her (which was… paper, so not that useful), and… Marina's goggles! That could work. She just needed to pass as someone who was supposed to be there. It was a risk, but it was all she had.

Eight hesitantly brought the device to her eyes. Marina had specifically said that she'd disabled the hypnotic functionality of the goggles, but something deep within Eight was still wary of them.

With the device on her face, she blinked a bit to get adjusted to the darkened lenses, then set off into the tunnel.

_ She just couldn't keep doing this. It was too much. The more she did for the military, the more she realised that it cared nothing for her. She understood that she was worth nothing, but was it too selfish to want more than what she was being given? _

_ Four missions. She had gone on four whole missions, fighting off death every time. And now that she had completed her fourth, she was expected to limp back to the base, likely suffering some physical abuse upon her return. _

_ What was wrong with her? She never used to think of her life in this way! She should just be an obedient soldier and go back to her Sergeant. _

_ But… something in her head gave her pause. It was a song… one she had heard a while back that never truly left her mind, but it was also more than that. It was her own voice in her head saying not to go back. It was so… unlike her. She was meant to be submissive and obedient, but everything in her was screaming to go anywhere but home. _

_ Where would she go, then? If she were to flee her home and betray her whole people… where would someone like that go? _

_ A glare of light caught her eye from above. She turned her head to the ceiling of the kettle, and saw light pouring out of a small grate. Had that always been there? How had  _ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ never noticed it before? True sunlight… it was almost like a dream. _

_ The surface. That was the only place she could go. She'd been up there before, on missions to destroy inkling infrastructure, but for some reason it had never occurred to her that she could live a life up there. Only now was that option opening up to her. _

__ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ nodded to herself. All she had to do was make it to that grate. She was glad that this mission had not left her in as bad of a state as the others had- she only had a single nail punctured through her leg. It was an improvement. And, because of this, she had confidence that she could make it. _

_ After painfully ripping the invasive object out,  _ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ started straying from the path back to base and headed in the direction of the grate. _

_ She thought about all of the good things on the surface, just to keep herself from backing out. She couldn't go back. Not anymore. But her life would be better up there. She just had to keep walking. Left, right, left, right... _

_ Suddenly, she saw a glint in the corner of her eye and stopped. Directly in front of her- where she would have been if she hadn't stopped- a charger shot splashed onto the ground. _

__ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ leapt backwards and looked frantically around her. Where did that come from? As soon as her combat instincts told her to, she quickly backstepped as another shot came in. Having gotten a better view of this one, she was actually able to pinpoint the location of the sniper. _

_ The octoling was perched on a hovering machine that was painted entirely black and was obscured in the shadows. It almost looked like a Great Machine. The octoling wore all black clothes, black gloves, and goggles with no lights.  _ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ would have never seen her if the charger hadn't caught just a little bit of light and reflected it from its lens. _

_ And seeing this sniper made  _ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ realize exactly why most of the people in her platoon didn't last more than one mission. Some of them probably tried to run. And there were measures in place to prevent that. _

_ The sniper shot again, but  _ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ wasn't planning on going out this way. She leapt to the side, then drew her Octoshot. She wasn't at a great range to use it effectively, but she was able to sufficiently annoy the sniper into moving out of the shadows. _

_ The enemy octoling shot once more, and  _ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ thought that she would be capable of another dodge, but the sniper was clearly zoning in on her. The charger hit a glancing blow against the defecting octoling, but it had so much force that  _ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ could already feel herself close to splatting. Whatever that gun was, it was powerful. And made specifically for this purpose. _

__ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ knew that getting splatted here would be the end of her. The nearby respawn platforms were deactivated, so there was no coming back from a loss. As such, she retreated a bit in order to find cover. After hiding behind some sort of large piping unit, she took a deep breath and listened. The whirring sound of the sniper's platform was faint, but she could just barely hear it approaching. _

_ As the harbinger of death rounded the corner,  _ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ felt something that she had never truly felt before, something deep in the core of her being: she felt a primal want- no, a primal need- to survive. Her whole life she had been willing to throw it all away for the Octarian Army, but now she refused. She knew very well how little her life was worth, but regardless she had a sudden drive to keep it. So, as soon as her assailant and would-be murderer came into view,  _ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ struck. _

_ She sprung up onto her cover, then used it to leap onto the floating platform. The sniper, caught by surprise, did not react fast enough before  _ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ tackled her off. They both tumbled onto the floor, and the sniper's platform seemed to lose control without anyone on it. It spun around in the air, careening away until it hit the wall of the kettle and exploded. _

_ That wasn't  _ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ 's concern right now, though. Right now she had to fight for survival. As she got to her feet, the sniper did, too, and grabbed her specially-engineered gun.  _ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ knew she had an advantage from this range with her Octoshot, though. Using it, she forced the sniper to take cover behind a crate of power eggs.  _

_ Now that  _ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ had the advantage, she needed to make sure she kept it. She vaulted over the crate and aimed her Octoshot… but she hadn't been prepared for the quick retaliation that the sniper sent her way. Instead of attempting to rely on her specialized weapon, the killer dropped it and piledrived the red-tentacled octoling towards the edge of the platform.  _ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ shoved the dark-clothed killer off of herself close to the edge and teetered dangerously as she attempted to keep her balance on the platform. _

_ It was in vain, however, as the assassin gave  _ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ a roundhouse kick to the chest. The attempted deserter stumbled backwards onto the little flooring left behind her and landed a bad step on her injured leg. She collapsed and dropped off the side of the platform into the abyss below. _

_ The wind rushed past  _ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ 's ears as she fell. Looking up, she could see the assassin briefly peek over the edge, then walk away. Her job had been done. _

_ But not if  _ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ had any say in it. She was falling, yes, but she wasn't dead yet. _

_ She put every bit of energy she possessed into the one option she still had- a super jump. In a situation like the one she was in, this was very unlikely to work. With her downward momentum, aiming properly was going to be nearly impossible. But banking on that 'nearly' was the only chance she had. _

_ She turned to octo form, reared back, and fired off. It canceled out her fall and sent her back up a ways. As she neared the platforms, she shifted back to octoling form and reached for the railing that she was hurtling up to. With the feeling of desperation in her chest, she tried to wrap her fingers around one of the rungs. _

_ But her hand slipped. _

_ She once again started to fall, and she thought that this time it was truly the end. As she fell, however, her arm instinctively reached for something to grab onto… and it managed to latch onto the edge of one of the lower platforms. _

__ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ gasped from exertion as she pulled herself up, then rolled onto her back and let the adrenaline flush out. She was safe. She did it. She was alive, and no one else knew it. She could escape now. _

_ However, it seemed that this thought was a bit premature, as  _ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ started hearing footsteps approaching her. _

_ Oh no. The sniper was coming back, and it sounded like she wasn't alone. There was no way that  _ ~~_ &&&&&&& _ ~~ _ could make it out of this one alive. All she could do was fight to the bitter end. _

_ However, it was not the sniper that showed up before her. It was… two inklings? _

_ "Agent Three, there's another octoling dead ahead," the elderly-looking inkling said. _

_ "I see it and I'm on it," the younger-looking inkling said, pumping her wicked-looking shooter. _

"Hey you! Stop right there!" a guard shouted at Eight just before she arrived at the crack where she had gotten into the base in the first place.

Uh oh. Not good.

The guard dashed towards Eight and stopped right in front of her. He held his roller not quite pointed at Eight, but still ready to strike if he felt the need to.

"Who are you and what are you doing here? Identify yourself," the guard said.

Behind her goggles, Eight's eyes were wide with concern. But she closed them, and took a deep breath.

It was time for her to lie. A lot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Late, I know. I'm sorry. This one took some extra elbow grease in order to make it presentable. I only want to give you guys the best quality of content that I can offer. So here we go!
> 
> Eight's working on escaping, and has yet another traumatic memory!
> 
> I pray thee comment, lest the King tax your people and claim your ancestral land, commoners. (I'm running out of ways to request comments.)


	13. Chapter 13

Conversation with her mother had reached a contented silence after they had returned to the older cephalopod's house once again. Most of the things that needed to be said had already been said, and the rest could wait. But now Three had plenty more time to worry about where the  _ fuck _ Eight was. Because yes, Three had entertained the possibility that her girlfriend had perished in some dark corner of the underground and… nope, nope, nope. Not a good thing to think about right now.

Three's earpiece started making some faint static-y noises, distracting her from this depressing train of thought. The half-inkling was almost frustrated at the piece of technology for this, but then the implications of the noise registered in her head.

Eight's earpiece was back online.

Three bolted upright in her chair, startling her mother. But the agent didn't really pay that any mind. Instead, she placed a hand on her ear.

"Eight, come in. Is that you? Are you okay?"

* * *

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" the guard said.

Okay, Eight. Moment of truth. You are pretending to be brainwashed. Convince him.

Eight looked up at the top of the wall and noticed that all of the other guards were looking her way.

Convince  _ them _ .

Making her voice as monotone as she could, Eight spoke. "I am… Eila."

"Alright,  _ Eila _ ," the guard in front of her said. "What are you doing here?"

"I am trying to leave."

"Well, yeah, I understood that. But we're not supposed to let people leave without permission," the guard said.

"I have permission," Eight said, still attempting to act robotic.

"Oh really? Because I haven't heard anything about it," the guard said. "Permission from who?"

"The Sergeant sent me to… talk to another commanding officer. He was very angry. He was yelling a lot," Eight said.

This elicited a reaction from every guard in view. A negative one.

The closest guard winced. "Oh, uh… Oof. The Sergeant… uh… yeah, okay. Yeah, I'll let you through. Please just… don't let him know that I stopped you."

That was… too easy. Evidently this Sergeant was scary to just about everyone who knew him.

The guard went to the door of the compound and swiped a card in a terminal beside it. Another guard did the same on the other side of the door, which slid open for Eight. And just like that, Eight's escape was open.

"I'm serious. Please don't tell him that we gave you trouble," the guard said. There was an evident glint of terror in his eyes.

Eight simply nodded, then went through the exit, making a concerted effort to not look as anxious to get out of there as she felt. The doors slid shut behind her and she just kept walking, one step in front of the other, until she was past the walkway to the compound. Then she allowed herself a breath of relief.

" _ -in. Is that you? Are you okay? _ "

Three's voice, coming from Eight's earpiece. Through all of the commotion, she had pretty much forgotten that she  _ had _ an earpiece.

She put a hand to her ear. "Three. I'm here."

" _ THANK FUCKING CHRIST! _ " Three literally shouted, nearly blowing out Eight's eardrum.

* * *

"Where are you? I'm going to come pick you up," Three said, already out of her chair.

" _ Oh, um… I don't really know how to describe where I am? Everything here looks just about the same… _ " Eight said.

"Fine, just head in the direction of the residential area. I'll find you," Three said, about to march out the door.

"Hey," Lunara said. Three had almost forgotten about her presence. "Is everything alright?"

"Once Eight's back with me, it will be," Three said.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Lunara asked. "It can be easy to get lost here."

"Though I appreciate the offer, mom, I can handle this on my own," Three said. "We'll come back here once I find her."

"Alright, well I hope you find her fast! I'm excited to meet your teammate," Lunara said.

"Yeah," Three said with a small smile. "I'm excited for you to meet her, too."

* * *

The change of scenery did wonders to Eight's stress. Now that she was in the lower levels of the residential area, she no longer felt so… trapped.

She glanced back at that encampment every once in a while. It still was grating on her that she wasn't able to do anything to help the others in that suicide-platoon. Maybe with a full team in a head-on assault she could have freed them, but alone, outgunned, and on enemy turf… there was nothing she could have done. She knew this and understood this, but it still hurt that she couldn't help.

After all, she'd gone through the same hell.

Eight slowed down when she came upon a bulletin board. It looked to be mainly filled with absurdly-detailed lists of rules and various types of propaganda, but one bulletin in particular caught Eight's eye. She pulled off a few posters that were covering it, and it revealed itself to be a sketched drawing of Three, reading "Beware of the Agents. They will not hesitate," at the bottom.

Eight ran her fingers briefly over the image's face. Even though it was meant to be negative propaganda, the drawing was actually very accurate and beautiful, just like its source material.

"Man, it's quiet down here," said the very agent that the image portrayed, coming up behind Eight.

Eight turned to her and smiled brightly, but resisted the urge to hug or kiss her. It wasn't quite safe yet.

"Yes, I think most of the people in the lower levels must be in deployment in other kettles most of the time," Eight said.

"Kinda sucks for them, I'm guessing," Three said, and then she came up and looked at the poster. "Wow, good sketch artist. Needs an update, though. That image has one too many eyeballs."

"Thank you for coming to get me," Eight said.

"Thank  _ you _ for coming out safely," Three responded. "I was pretty worried. Glad I didn't need to be."

"I… found my platoon," Eight said. "The one I was in before I escaped."

Three looked thrown off by this. "The fucking death platoon? Jesus, are you alright after that? I can't imagine what it must have been like to experience that again…"

Eight stared off into the distance a bit. "All of them are young… and suffering. I had to leave them, and I… don't feel good about it."

Three brushed her hand up against Eight's. It was the most intimate gesture that she could have made that was still safe. "We'll come back for them some day."

Eight fished the large piece of parchment from her ink pack's pocket. "One of them gave me this," she said. She approached the bulletin board and pinned the poster of herself up beside the poster of Three. Then she stepped back until she was beside Three.

"Heh," Three chuckled, lowering her voice. "Kinda funny, when you think about it. You were portrayed as the hero that everyone down here should follow in the footsteps of, and I'm the scourge that everyone's supposed to fear. How'd we end up together, huh?"

Eight smiled and lowered her voice as well. "I guess we're just lucky."

Another brush of hands. "Yeah. In that way, we're very lucky." Three turned away from the posters and towards the octoling beside her. "I'm serious. We'll find a way to get them out. No one should have to go through what you did."

"Thank you, Three," Eight said very quietly. There was a tremble in her voice that seemed to come out of nowhere. "This means… so much to me."

"I know," Three said. She seemed to be about to hug Eight, but held herself back. "But for now, I think we should head home."

Eight nodded. She'd seen what she needed to see, and she was  _ tired _ . Going to sleep in an actual bed sounded great right now.

Three grinned. "But before we go, though… there's someone who I want you to meet."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just about one chapter left after the sweet, sweet ending of this one! This has been one heck of an enlightening adventure for the cepholesbians, and only _slightly_ angst-ridden! I hope you've enjoyed it!
> 
> (Also on a housekeeping note, I'll try to get the next chapter up in time, but I can't exactly make any promises. Stuff is super busy right now for me, so balancing stuff is an issue. But you guys are important, so I'll do my best!)
> 
> Have a nice day! Also please comment, for your comments bring a smile to my face!


	14. Chapter 14

The half-inkling rapped on the door three times with her knuckles.

"Mom?" Three said.

The door swung open to Lunara's smiling face. "Three! Welcome back. Did you find her?"

Three stepped aside, and Eight stepped forward to the door. Lunara's eyes lit up with curiosity.

"Come in, come in! It's so nice to meet you!" Lunara said, stepping aside and allowing Eight and Three to walk in. Eight was fascinated by the interior of the residence, and particularly enraptured by the bioluminescence that kept the place lit in lieu of electricity.

Lunara, after closing the door behind them, gave Eight a solid lookover. "So… to be honest, I wasn't expecting…"

"You weren't expecting Agent Eight to be an octoling," Three finished. "I had a feeling. I wanted to surprise you. So… yeah! Mom, meet my coworker, and…" Three took Eight's hand and interlaced their fingers, "... my girlfriend."

It seemed to take a moment before the information registered for Lunara. Then she covered her mouth with a hand. "Oh my god," she said. "That's… adorable. That is so adorable."

Eight turned her head to look at Three, and found a flushed, embarrassed face beside her.

" _ Moooom _ !" Three complained, which made both full-blood octolings in the room giggle.

"I'm sorry, it's just… it means so much to me that you two… you're from two different worlds, yet you made this work," Lunara said. "Romance isn't really… something that we have access to down here, so it's really refreshing to see."

"I'm sorry about that. We discovered that ourselves earlier in our trip," Eight said.

"No need to apologize for the world being the way that it is," Lunara said somberly, but then she brightened up a bit. "Just as long as you love my daughter, you have nothing to apologize for."

"I do. I really, really do love her," Eight said confidently.

"Then that makes me happier than you can imagine. Thank you for being there for her while I couldn't be," Lunara said, and then she started walking towards the living room. "Can I interest either of you in some food? I'm sure you're both hungry."

And this was the moment that Eight realized that she'd hardly eaten anything more than a granola bar or two the entire time that she was down here. Her nutritionist in Inkopolis was right: she  _ did _ have issues when it came to eating enough.

A glance at Three's expression revealed that she, too, was starving.

"Yeah, some food sounds awesome right now," Three said.

* * *

"I… honestly wish that you didn't have to leave so soon," Lunara said, walking the two agents out of her residence.

"I know," Three said. "I'd like to stay longer, but I don't want to make our friends on the surface worry."

"I understand," Lunara said, though she still looked a little sad about it.

"You know… you could still come with us," Three said. "Live a life on the surface, catch some sun rays. We could spend time as mother and daughter up there."

Eight eagerly chimed in. "Yeah, there are already a couple of us living in Inkopolis! It isn't perfect, but eventually it really does start feeling like home!"

Lunara shook her head. "Very, very tempting, but I have a duty to the people down here. DJ Octavio may not be in the kettles anymore, but his influence still is. I have to make sure that innocent octolings are capable of staying out of the wrath of this military. I'm sorry, Three."

Three gave a small sigh. "Yeah, I figured. I'll try and visit now that I know where to find you, though."

Lunara smiled. "I'd like that." Her face then hardened a bit and her posture straightened. "Alright, do you need anything before you leave? Do you have everything you brought with you?"

Three briefly patted her pockets, or rather the pockets of the stolen uniform. "Yeah, pretty much. I just have to pick up my hoodie on the way back."

Eight, having given herself a more thorough patdown, suddenly spoke, "The poster!"

"The poster?" Three asked.

"The one with me on it! It was a gift from someone in the encampment and I left it on that bulletin board," Eight said. "I'm sorry, it's really important to me. I'll try to be quick."

"Don't worry about it, Eight, take all the time you need," Three said. "I'll just take the time to say my final goodbyes to my mom."

Eight nodded, then ran off to the staircase to the lower levels. Three turned back to her mother. "Alright, so we've got a little more time, I guess."

"If I may ask, why is that poster so important to Eight? Surely a piece of paper is replaceable," Lunara asked.

"Oh, well… that compound that she went to? Apparently it's a place where she suffered a lot in her past," Three said. "There's a lot I don't understand about the situation and I don't even know the full extent of it, so I won't try and explain it, but… Eight got the poster from there and… it's important."

"She suffered…?" Lunara pondered out loud, but then she shook herself. "I'm sorry, that's probably a discussion for another day. For now, I want you to know… I'm really proud of the woman you've become. I know I have no right to say that considering that I wasn't ever there for you, but it's true."

Three smiled. "You're allowed to be as proud of me as you'd like to be."

Lunara chuckled a bit. "May I hug you, Three?"

"... For the record, I don't let most people do this, but… yes, you may."

Three's mother wrapped her arms around the half-inkling, who instinctively hesitated before returning the favor. The tight embrace was comforting, as if she had known its feeling since birth. Damn, mom hugs were powerful.

"Thank you," Lunara said over Three's shoulder.

"For what?" Three asked.

"Just… thank you," Lunara repeated.

Three smiled and hugged her mother just a little bit tighter.

* * *

Eight sauntered down the steps, attempting to maximize the time that Three had left with her mother. She was glad that Three seemed so happy to have finally gotten the chance to meet the woman who gave birth to her. It made all of the fear and horrible memories that came from coming down to the underground worth it, in Eight's opinion.

But she couldn't stall forever, as she had already reached the floor on which she and Three had met back up earlier. She navigated past some low-level housing arrangements to the little, quiet square that they had stood in together, and then approached the billboard.

…

And the posters, both the one of Three and the one of Eight, were… gone…?

Eight looked around. Had someone really taken them? Why? It also seemed like this place had been abandoned last time they were here, so… who? They'd only been gone for around an hour…

There was a cracked-open door on one of the nearby houses. Eight was sure that it hadn't been that way before, so she curiously walked up to it and peered inside.

Upon peering into the room, Eight found it to be pitch black and could hardly see anything. She did, however, hear a slight bit of shuffling from inside.

She creaked the door open and stepped in cautiously, looking for a light switch of some sort. She wanted this poster back. It was something to remember Akse and Zayne and everyone else in that base by, and she wanted the reminder of what they were going through. It would be a motivator to come save them, and Eight wasn't ready to give that up so easily.

The door to the room slammed shut behind her, and she was immediately put on high alert. Lights came on in the room, and then more lights, and more lights. Flashing lights. They were so bright. And then there were colors. So many colors, blaring in her eyes. Burning her eyes. Burning, burning. And there was music, pounding in her ears, in her brain. Thump, thump, pulse, pulse, and the lights kept flashing and flashing and they were so bright and-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops. Did I say _one_ more chapter? I meant two.
> 
> Comment.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to see where this story goes after this, you should subscribe to the series (click the series name above, then the subscribe button at the top of the screen). Just sayin'.

"... Okay, this should not be taking this long," Three said, anxiously tapping her foot. Eight had been gone for, like, half an hour now.

"I'm inclined to agree. Maybe she got lost?" Lunara said.

"I mean, I guess that's a possibility…" Three said. "It's fine, though. I'll just go down there and grab her and then we'll head out."

"Fair enough," Lunara said. "... Are you sure _you_ know where you're going?"

Three rolled her eye. "Yes, I'm fine."

"Alright, alright," Lunara said. "Take care of yourself, Three. I hope we'll get to meet again soon."

"Yeah. See ya', Mom!" Three said, and Lunara slowly closed the door between them.

Now, to find Eight. She tried her earpiece, but there was no response. It could have been another dead zone or… possibly something else. Either way, Three wasn't getting anywhere with that.

So she started walking down the stairs to the lower levels, the pit in her stomach growing with every step. She was sure that this was all just a set of coincidences that were stalling Eight, but… what if it was something else? Something bad?

Three scratched under the bandage on her head. Well, she wouldn't know either way until she saw for herself. So she kept going.

* * *

"Hello? Eight?" Three called out for the umpteenth time. She normally wouldn't go around shouting out their names to anyone who could hear it, but she was getting desperate. Where was Eight? Three had been searching for a while now, and it was as if her girlfriend had just… disappeared.

But then she heard it. That beautiful voice, far in the distance.

"Agent Three?"

"Eight? Where are you?" Three asked, a wave of relief washing over her.

That relief quickly removed itself, however, when no response came.

"Eight? Hey, talk to me."

Again, no response.

"Eight?"

With the unnerving silence, Three could only do one thing: follow where she heard Eight's voice. Or… the general direction of it, at least. She weaved through the alleyways between residences, hoping and praying that everything was alright. She came to the area around that bulletin board that _should_ have had Eight's poster on it and looked around frantically. Her trail had gone cold. Fuck.

"Eight?! Eight?!" She called out. She didn't care who heard. Finding her girlfriend came first.

Shuffling. From behind. Suddenly Three found herself feeling very vulnerable here. She didn't have an ink pack, so her Hero Shot only had as much ink as it could hold in its self-contained tank, which wasn't much. No ink tank also meant no bombs, the grated flooring meant no swimming away… she didn't have a lot of options.

And when she saw what came out of the shadows, she wished that she had _something_ more.

Two octolings slinked out, one with red tentacles and one with black. And they wore sinister grins on their faces as they approached, weapons drawn.

Three wasn't in any mood for diplomacy, and it seemed that the octolings weren't either. And so the agent took the initiative and fired first.

Splat!

The red-tentacled octoling was sent to the nearest respawn point, and the explosion from her splatting splashed a little bit of greenish-yellow ink onto the other octoling.

Damn, that took all of the ink Three had. All she had left now were threats and fists.

"You want to end up like your friend there?" Three said to the black-tentacled octoling, leveling her now-useless hero shot at her.

The octoling looked a little less smug, but did not look afraid. She rushed forward at Three without drawing her Octo Shot, which was… an odd choice, but probably in Three's favor, so she wasn't going to complain.

The octoling came in with a punch, which Three deflected to the side with her arm and countered by hitting her opponent with the butt of her Shooter. The octoling reeled back from the impact.

"I'm not kidding. Step away and I won't have to seriously hurt you," Three said. In another time she would have taken out her knife to add to the threat, but… well, she didn't carry one anymore.

As such, the octoling didn't seem too threatened and she came in for another attack. Three quickly stowed her Hero Shot and then roundhouse kicked her assailant in the ribs. The octoling stumbled away and grasped at what was certainly going to become a nasty bruise.

As Three was prepared to say something snarky, however, she was grabbed from behind. Her quick reactions were enough for her to slip out of the hold and swivel around to face the newest arrival. Or… arrivals. Two new octolings.

"Fuck," Three mumbled to herself. With a weapon, this would be no problem, but in the situation she was in now… not good.

She leapt back to put some distance between her and the new arrivals, and heard the original octoling come at her from behind. Three sweeped her leg around and knocked the octoling behind her to the ground, then shoulder charged one of the others. She then tried to make a run for it, but the last octoling dove towards her and grabbed her by the ankle, causing her to slam on the cold metal floor.

Three kicked the octoling's hand off with her other foot, but at this point the other two octolings were back on their feet. Three clambered up as well, and then started reaching for her ear.

Come on, come on, just have to get the limiter off. She could deal with the consequences later.

But when her hand was barely an inch away from the suppression device, the black-tentacled octoling delivered a full-force punch to Three's gut, causing her to double over.

The three octolings grappled onto Three, two holding her arms and one with an arm around her waist and a hand over her mouth. Three struggled, but their hold was too tight.

As a last resort, the half-inkling opened her mouth and bit down _hard_ on the fingers covering it. The octoling they belonged to cried out in pain as Three drew blood with her fangs. The taste of copper and seafood in her mouth, Three reopened her mouth and the octoling reeled back, releasing her hold on the agent. With that, Three swung her legs forward and ripped herself out of the grasp of the other two enemies.

And then she sprinted as fast as she could, sprinted like she never had before. The direction didn't matter to her. She just had to escape, escape and-

Another octoling blocked her path. Three was prepared to plow through this one just the same as the others, but this octoling was different. Three recognized this one.

"Eight!" Three said, relief flooding through her voice. She grabbed her girlfriend's hands. "We've got to get out of here! Let's go!"

And then Eight headbutted her.

Three stumbled backwards, dazed. She rubbed the point of impact on her head and looked back up to the octoling before her. "W-why did you do that?"

And then Eight started marching towards Three, malice in her eyes. And Three started to get the picture of what was going on here.

"Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no…" Three lamented as she backed away from her girlfriend. "They got you... They figured out some way to cancel out the inkantation… oh no…"

And then Three was tackled from behind. On the ground, she was grabbed by all three of the octolings from before, along with the octoling she had splatted, freshly respawned. She was dragged up to her feet, kicking and snarling, but she had no 'out' this time. She was stuck.

And her struggling got more frantic as the brainwashed Eight approached her from the front. The mind controlled agent's hand went into a pocket, and came out with something that she promptly put upon Three's face. They were like sunglasses… shades…

No. No, nonono don't. Oh god no.

Three tried to close her eye as lights started flashing in the device, but she just couldn't. It was as if her entire body's control was being ripped from her. As the lights and patterns played before her, Three felt her mind going cloudy. Her thoughts felt heavier… her will weaker… she lost the instinct to resist, she forgot _how_ to resist. The world got smaller and smaller, more and more distant, until there was nothing left. Just nothing.

* * *

"Today has been a massive victory for our people!"

The crowd of octolings cheered. Howled. Cried out in bliss.

"Not only have we reclaimed a traitor to our kind, but we have also taken control of one of inklingkind's fiercest warriors. We feared her for so long, but now she works for us!"

More cheers. Ecstatic applause. So much happiness.

The octoling on the stage grinned evilly, then turned from the crowd. "And we do this all for you, our leader, our savior, our salvation. We, the Octarian Military, present these two to you as a gift, DJ Octavio."

The large mechanical throne on the stage descended, lowering the octarian ruler closer to the captives.

"Good. Very good," Octavio said, stroking his chin with vigor. "Oh, my dear Agent 3, how much fun we are going to have."

Agent Three kneeled down to her new overlord. Her new master.

"I will do what you ask, DJ Octavio. Anything you ask. I am at your service."


End file.
